Toronto Maple Leafs: Nikita Soshnikov highlights injured reserve issues

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ handling of Nikita Soshnikov highlights the problems with how the NHL handles their injured reserve list

Professional athletes get injured. This is inevitable, no matter how hard players and teams try to prevent injuries. However, the NHL’s handling of players of the injured reserve and long-term injured reserve lists has been questionable at best. Recently, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been at the front of this discussion, using the LTIR to absorb several cap hits. Nikita Soshnikov proves the problem with how the NHL handles these situations.

On December 12, he was placed on the injured reserve list with a lower-body injury. Even New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has to be impressed with how vague that is. But it’s the norm for NHL teams. Putting a player on injured reserve allows the team to replace his spot on the roster.

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Soshnikov recently lost his waiver-exempt status, making his placement on the injured reserve list rather convenient. As long as he’s on the injured reserve list, the Leafs don’t have to worry about having to put him (or someone else) on waivers or sending anyone who is still waiver-exempt down to the AHL. With a full roster, it’s not hard to see what the Leafs are doing with Soshnikov.

At the beginning of February, Toronto sent their forward to the AHL on a conditioning stint. This allows players who are either placed on injured reserve or haven’t played in the NHL for a while to get back in shape.

By all accounts, Soshnikov’s five-game AHL conditioning stint went extremely well. It officially ended on Monday. The CBA allows for conditioning stints to last for 14 days. Technically, the Leafs can have had Soshnikov down until Wednesday, Feb. 14, as his conditioning stint began on Feb. 1.

However, the Leafs are putting Soshnikov back on the injured reserve list. Despite playing in five AHL games and performing extremely well during it, Toronto is allowed to say he’s not healthy enough to play in the NHL yet. One has to wonder how the Leafs are allowed to do this. It’s ridiculous.

For what it’s worth, Soshnikov has had to agree with everything so far. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s clearly healthy enough to play hockey, yet somehow, the Leafs can say he’s not. It’s allowing Toronto to basically keep 25 players, as they could take Soshnikov off the injured reserve list whenever they need him.

The Leafs have a history of doing this. Joffrey Lupul is a recent example, though he’s a long-term injured reserve list player. And let’s be fair to Toronto, they’re not the only team to take advantage of this silly loophole. The Minnesota Wild did it with Zach Parise. Anyone who thinks their team wouldn’t exploit it if given the chance is in denial.

The Solution

Now that the problem has been made painfully obvious, let’s think of a solution. Team doctors won’t solve anything. Remember, they’re being paid by an organization. The doctors are generally going to say whatever the team wants them to say, or they’ll soon no longer be affiliated with the team.

Here’s a fairly simple solution that works well for everyone. The NHL should find a third-party doctor for each team. They are the ones who determine if a player is healthy or not. This removes the conflict of interest of having doctors paid by a team determine if someone is healthy.

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Fixing this issue is relatively easy. Though this isn’t a significant issue for the NHL to deal with, it’s one that has a viable solution. So why not deal with it?