Gary Bettman addresses whether the Golden Knights are trying to cheat the salary cap

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C. Ritchie
April 1, 2022 (3:02 PM)

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Over the last few seasons there has been an alarming trend in the National Hockey League. Teams have started to find ways to work around the salary cap in order to gain a competitive edge in the playoffs.

The most obvious example was last year when Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning was injured for most of the second half of the regular season. He was put on Long Term Injury Reserve and the Tampa Bay Lightning used that cap space to acquire multiple players at the trade deadline. Miraculously, Nikita Kucherov was healthy for game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. During the playoffs there is no salary cap so it was completely legal for the Lightning to be over the limit. The Chicago Blackhawks also did something similar with Patrick Kane in 2015.

This year the Vegas Golden Knights have multiple high-salary star players on LTIR. It has been obvious all season that this has been the plan since acquiring Jack Eichel. When Vegas traded for Eichel, he was already injured and the cap strapped team put him immediately on the LTIR. Once Eichel was healthy, Mark Stone was moved to the LTIR. This has raised some eyebrows around the league.

Gary Bettman was asked about this at the General Manager meetings. When asked if he was satisfied with how Vegas is handling the salary cap he said «Based on what I know about it to this point, yes». GM Kelly McCrimmon of the Vegas Golden Knights was asked if the NHL or any other teams had complained to him about their cap usage, he replied, «Not once. In any way, shape or form.»

So allegedly the league has no problem with what Vegas is doing this year. That may be because Vegas is battling for a Wild Card playoff spot right now and during the regular season Vegas hasn't gained any real advantage. But come playoff time if the Golden Knights make a run with all their LTIR players active again, I expect changes to come quickly.