This loophole was also used by the Hawks during their cup run where they placed Kane on LTIR claiming he was out until at least the second round of playoffs only to return for game 1 of round 1 and helped lead the Hawks to the Stanley Cup.
One of the proposed options, as Gord Miller and Pierre LeBrun reported, is that teams would be able to carry as many players as they would like but that the game roster must not exceed the salary cap.
For instance this season with the Salary cap at $81.5 million, if Vegas were to make the playoffs, they would have to find a way to create enough cap space on their roster so that they could have Mark Stone and Alec Martinez into the lineup. That could mean only playing with 17 total players instead of the standard 20.
While the GMs are all for a change to the loophole, it will be hard to make any change happen as the NHLPA would have to approve. This is because it is a cap related issue and, as outlined in the CBA, these types of issues would have to be signed off on by the players.
Additionally, players don't get paid a salary in the playoffs, they get bonuses depending on how far into the playoffs the team goes, so the chances of players agreeing to this when they don't get paid unless they reach a certain round is highly unlikely.
POLL | ||
25 MARS | 245 ANSWERS Hybrid ''Kucherov Rule'' an option for playoff salary cap Should the league implement a salary cap for the playoffs? | ||
Yes | 153 | 62.4 % |
No | 92 | 37.6 % |
List of polls |