Vegas Golden Knights up to more cap shenanigans
After the Evgenii Dadanov trade debacle, the Vegas Golden Knights now need to get creative with their roster. All season Vegas has been right up to the cap, even with all the injuries to their star players.
One solution that Vegas has come up with is to add even more players to LTIR. Reilly Smith has been on injured reserve since March 14th. The Golden Knights announced on Friday that they have moved Smith to LTIR. Smith's $5 million now comes off the cap. Smith is now required to miss at least 10 games or 24 days, backdated to March 14th.
Vegas now has just under $7 million in cap space available. They likely want to activate captain Mark Stone from LTIR before the season is over in order to get some chemistry with Jack Eichel. Unfortunately he has a $9.5 million cap hit so Vegas would still have to make some room.
Max Pacioretty, who was skating before the Dadonov trade reversal has also suddenly suffered a setback in his recovery.
DeBoer didn't have a timeline but said he won't be available "in the near future."
This is just another way that Vegas continues to "navigate" the cap hell they've created for themselves.
| POLL | ||
Should the NHL close this sort of LTIR cap circumvention? | ||
| Yes | 183 | 76.3 % |
| No | 32 | 13.3 % |
| Get rid of the salary cap | 25 | 10.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
