Tampa Bay Lightning fans got a lot of flak online because Nikita Kucherov was injured following hip surgery for the entirety of the 2020-21 shortened season. Kucherov came back for the playoffs, allowing the Lightning to overwrite his cap hit during the season, after repeated failed attempts to shed salary during the offseason.
This season, the Vegas Golden Knights are doing the same — but arguably worse — thing and putting Mark Stone, who has a vague back injury, on LTIR in order to activate midseason acquisition Jack Eichel.
Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon says captain Mark Stone will be going on LTIR with a back injury
In better news, Jack Eichel is set to make his VGK debut on Wednesday vs.