Heading into today’s General Manager’s meeting in Florida, most people were talking about one thing: The Kucherov Manoeuvre. That’s not a clever trick from a Star Trek episode, that’s the so-called abuse of LTIR whereby an injured player is left off the NHL roster and only activated in the playoffs when the salary cap is no longer in effect.
Many stories have been written over the last few weeks making the case that the NHL needs a new rule to prevent this. Most of those stories have left out the very real fact that LTIR is outlined in Article 50 of the CBA and no one can change anything in the CBA without negotiating it with the NHLPA.