Teams looking at trading for injured player to pull a 'Nikita Kucherov' to circumvent the salary cap
The Tampa Bay Lightning drew a ton of criticism when they held Nikita Kucherov out of the lineup for the entire season. The Lightning only activated Kucherov for game 1 of the playoffs, but it appears teams have learned from this approach and are now willing to try it for themselves.
It was just recently announced that Columbus winger Gustav Nyquist is out for the remainder of the regular season with a shoulder injury. At first it seemed as though Nyquist season was completely finished playing hockey this year and that Columbus missed the opportunity to trade away the veteran winger. However NHL reporter Chris Johnston brings up an interesting take on Nyquist. He suggests that the winger still gets traded, gets his shoulder repaired, and is activated off of LTIR during the playoffs.
When healthy, Nyquist would be a nice addition to any playoff team. He has plenty of NHL experience and he brings a scoring touch with him that could help any team in the playoffs. Teams might be a little wary of his injury so they will surely have to consider the risk. However acquiring Nyquist might be reasonable.
In forty eight games played this season the Swedish winger has ten goals and twelve assists. He is in the final year of his contract which pays him $5.5 million per season. After this season he will be an unrestricted free agent.
| POLL | ||
Should the playoffs so have a salary cap? | ||
| No, keep the current system | 11 | 24.4 % |
| Yes, the playoffs need the same cap | 34 | 75.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
