The NHL and NHLPA agreed on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) earlier this summer to supersede the current one. The NHL CBA in place at the moment is set to expire roughly a year from now. By agreeing to a new CBA, the two sides avoided what could have been a lockout.
This situation is hardly surprising. The NHL and NHLPA had been releasing tidbits of information regarding the new CBA’s provisions. But where things got truly interesting was the news on Tuesday that some of the key provisions included in the new CBA were moved up practically a full year.
Two of those key provisions were the playoff salary cap and the end of the (long-term injured reserve) LTIR loophole. We got into that information in an earlier piece here at Puck Prose. So, to elaborate on that earlier piece, it’s worth delving into what could shape up to be a quiet trade deadline this season.
Typically, the NHL trade deadline is a sort of holiday season for the NHL. Teams scramble to get deals in before the cutoff date, after which playoff-bound teams can no longer add players to their rosters. Players added after the trade deadline become ineligible for postseason play.
As such, the trade deadline is a feeding frenzy for the media. Speculation generally begins months in advance and runs through the 3 pm EST cutoff on deadline day.
But due to the early implementation of the playoff salary cap, the trade deadline will morph from an event condensed into a week-long buzz on activity to what could be a months-long affair.
In particular, the fact that teams cannot use LTIR to pack on additional contracts at the deadline could mean that GMs may need to make moves well in advance to clear cap space before adding new contracts. Thus, moves could be spread throughout the season as opposed to being packed a week or so before the deadline.
If that’s the case, the actual deadline day itself could be a quiet one. Teams may have done their shopping well before the actual cutoff date and time.
NHL CBA closes LTIR loophole leading to fewer deadline deals
The end of the LTIR loophole per the new NHL CBA could mean fewer deals this season. Under the previous rules, teams could place contracts on LTIR, buying them additional cap space to add more players.
This situation led to teams purchasing contracts of players who are no longer active, but technically still on a team’s payroll. The clearest example at the moment is Montreal Canadiens’ goalie Carey Price.
Price has been unofficially retired since 2022. However, he hasn’t officially retired in order to avoid what’s known as the cap recapture penalty. In other words, if a player retires before his contract expires, the team holding the contract, whoever that may be, and the team that signed the contract, get penalized for the retirement.
There’s a long backstory behind that rule. But the NHL and NHLPA agreed to it to protect players from phony retirements and to allow teams to weasel out of long-term cap hits.
So, under the new NHL CBA, teams won’t be able to purchase a contract like Price’s, put it on LTIR, and then pile on more contracts. Moreover, some controversial uses of this loophole have led to Stanley Cups. The most recent was the Florida Panthers’ use of Matthew Tkachuk’s $9.5 million cap hit last season.
As mentioned in a previous post, the Panthers moved Tkachuk’s cap hit to LTIR after he sustained a sports hernia at the 4 Nations Face-Off. That move allowed the Panthers to bring in Brad Marchand and Seth Jones. Then, the Panthers activated Tkachuk for the playoffs.
That move would not be permitted under the new rules. Teams must be cap-compliant in the playoffs as they are during the regular season. That situation means that this upcoming season, teams won’t be able to fudge the rules like the Panthers did.
In retrospect, if the rule had been in place during the 2024-25 season, would the Panthers have been able to Jones and Marchand? Not a chance. Would that have resulted in another team winning the Stanley Cup? Possibly.
Without notable Leaf Killer Marchand, the Maple Leafs could have finally gotten over the hump and into the Eastern Conference Final. That’s purely speculation, but it’s the sort of argument that could be made under the new NHL CBA provisions.
All told, the NHL could have a vastly different trade market this season. GMs will be careful to make ill-advised moves until the full ramifications of the new NHL CBA rules are fully understood.
In the meantime, fans may have to get used to relatively minor deals taking place. The days of the barrage of trades leading up to the trade deadline could be over.