What if there was a rule that prevented a player from playing in the Playoffs if they ended the year in LTIR? This would allow for legitmate use of the LTIR but prevent teams from staching players there until Game 1. There would need to be a system in effect so that you could move someone from LTIR to Injured reserve before the end of the season for instances of players truly having injuries expected to heal around start of playoffs.

-Are there any concerns with a rule like this?

The rule I'd want is just your 20 man roster you're icing on any given playoff game should be under the cap, simple and allows players to be back for the playoffs but limits so that it's harder to take advantage of

That might be the more straightforward rule.

Keep the Salary Cap through playoffs...

Prevents cap circumvention

Billionaires own the teams (OK not ARZ).
* Get on Zoom and amend the CAP $$ UPWARD....voila.
* The owners can all afford >$5M per or >$10M per etc. CAP JUMP today! Get off your wallets and spur some REAL TDL trades, not $900K mucker for mucker stuff.

I am definitely ready for the Cap to start moving up and who needs ARZ anyways.

Which Vegas can do with their current roster, and probably with another deadline acquisition. Right now they can ice a 20 man roster that takes up 77M-81M.

Last year the lineup of
Barbashev Eichel Marchessault
Howden Stephenson Stone
Smith Karlsson Amadio
Carrier Roy Kolesar

Martinez Pietrangelo
McNabb Theodore
Hague Whitecloud

Hill
Thompson

would have been cap compliant too, I believe.

It's not perfect, but it does add at least some restriction. You can't run a 20 man group @ $83M in game 1 then swap a $750k guy for Mark Stone's $9.5M in game 2.
If you have to choose between two $5M guys on any given night, you can increase the quality of your depth/insurance, but not so much your playing roster.

One change I would make for LTIR is that you can only apply the relief from one player toward a direct replacement for that player.
So if Mark Stone goes down and you add a $4M player, you "lose" the other $5.5M.
If you lose a $1M player as well, you don't get to add a $6.5M player, you're limited to a one-for-one swap at $1M or less.

It's no longer a "pool" of discretionary spending where you can keep adding players until that pool is maxed out.

If LTIR money was used to acquire players, ban a LTIR player from entering playoffs. LTIR money acquired players may play, but LTIR player should be banned. Likewise, LTIR player may play, but LTIR money acquired players shall be banned.

Or just simply announce salary cap for playoffs

I don’t get why

You cannot just say the roster of 23 has to be cap compliant.

If you’ve had injury, you use ltir to replace the skater.

When the skater returns, you have to field a cap team. That means somebody sits, which happens anyway when somebody comes back from injury.

You could still have a playoff roster that exceeds the cap between games, but at game time, the decisions have to be made.

I think maybe there should be a partial cap in the playoffs, but not a full cap. For example, you are allowed to go $7M over. Also, there should be constraints. If a player has been injured all year and he could be back in the playoffs (eg: Landeskog), then that should be allowed. In the case of Hertl, while it seems sketchy, I think if they can provide legitimate proof that they are hurt within the last couple months of the season, then that should be allowed. But, you know how transparent teams are about injuries.

7 million is oddly specific

Roster size is unlimited during the playoffs, which is why Black Aces are a thing. There is no "23-man roster".

That said, ensuring that the 20-man is compliant every game is possible and a good idea.

Lol yeah I'm sorry, I'm biased . Anyway, just some number that is under $10M. Or maybe just take that stipulation a way and just say you must fit the injured player back on your roster (even if he's still hurt) before the playoffs start

So..... Kucherov? The one that started all this?

If he had been injured for the whole season and was just then returning, yes