Golden Knights Place Tomas Hertl on LTIR For More Cap Relief

The Las Vegas Golden Knights are really pushing the limits when it comes to dancing around the salary cap in the NHL. They have been called out in the past for placing players on LTIR before the trade deadline in order to bring other stars in and be cap-compliant, just to have those players play in game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Notably, they have done this with Mark Stone.

Now, it appears they are going to do this with Tomas Hertl, pushing the limits even further. The Golden Knights have just announced that Hertl will be placed on LTIR which makes enough room for them to recall Jiri Patera. The Knights acquired Hertl this year at the trade deadline.

With the current NHL salary cap being just $83.5 million, that means that the Vegas Golden Knights have a quarter of the total salary cap in relief for LTIR.

The Golden Knights have been called out for these antics in the past, however, under the current NHL rules what they are doing is allowed. It will be especially telling to see just how much the Knights are 'over' the cap come game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Clearly, this should be a topic of discussion this offseason for potential salary cap changes, as teams are going to start bending the rules and having star players sit out from the period of February to April, which is not good for the game.

As seen on Blade of Steel - "Golden Knights place Tomas Hertl on long-term injury reserve" -