Riley Stillman. Jesper Fast. Jackson Blake. Joakim Ryan. Tyson Jost. Claude Lemieux. Bryce Montgomery.
No, it’s not the cast of a whodunit NHL mystery, though how all these players — and their salaries — fit into the Carolina Hurricanes’ convoluted and confusing salary cap maneuvering is undoubtedly worthy of an Agatha Christie novel.
When the NHL implemented its salary cap following the lockout that cost the league the 2004-05 season, it was easy to understand. There was no Larry Bird rule as in the NBA, no non-guaranteed contracts leading to dead money as in the NFL, and no luxury tax as in Major League Baseball.
Nope, the NHL made it simple: Here’s how much money you can spend, don’t go over it.
Oh, those were the days.
The collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association has evolved over the past two decades, especially as far as the salary cap is concerned, and teams have found ways to exploit the rules to their advantage. This is especially true of long-term injured reserve, or LTIR.
While LTIR is mentioned and argued about plenty — hello, Nikita Kucherov’s “$18 million over the cap” shirt — few understand all its intricacies.
The Hurricanes piqued the league’s interest this summer with two eight-year contracts — for Jaccob Slavin and Seth Jarvis — that used deferred money to lower the deals’ cost against the salary cap.
If that wasn’t confusing enough, Carolina is at it again with its current maneuvering.
Let’s start with Fast. The 32-year-old right wing suffered a neck injury in the final game of last year’s regular season that cost him all of the postseason. At the Hurricanes’ end-of-season availability, Fast said he was in a neck brace full-time. On Aug. 29, the team announced Fast underwent surgery earlier in the month and was expected to miss the entire 2024-25 season.
Carolina owner Tom Dundon takes plenty of heat from outside observers claiming he’s cheap, but since he took over the Hurricanes, the team has been willing to spend to the upper limit of the cap and beyond to field a competitive team.
A season-long injury complicates the salary cap situation of any team that plans to spend to the cap, which is $88 million for this season, and Fast’s $2.4 million average annual value salary (AAV) isn’t wiped from the books just because he won’t play this year.
There is a way, however, to get cap relief when a player is injured: the aforementioned LTIR.
Here’s an elevator pitch on how LTIR works: When a player is injured, teams have the option of putting the player on LTIR, which allows a team to exceed the salary cap by adding the injured player’s AAV to its salary cap ceiling.
Here’s a simple example. Let’s say there was a fictitious NHL team this season — we’ll call them the Arizona Coyotes — that is currently spending $87.5 million of the $88 million salary cap. But then a player, Mascot Howler, who has a $2 million AAV, suffers an injury. The Coyotes need to recall a player, but they only have $500,000 in salary cap space. By putting Howler on LTIR, his $2 million AAV gets tacked onto the amount the team is currently spending toward the cap, minus the $500,000 of space the team had. So the team’s $88 million cap ceiling becomes $89.5 million.
When the Coyotes call up their player, Nummo Teppinen, who makes $1 million, they are now spending $88.5 million of their $89.5 million cap. If Howler comes off of LTIR, the team must get back under the $88 million cap.
This explains why teams try to get as close as possible to the salary cap ceiling before putting a player on LTIR, because the closer a team gets to $88 million, the higher its cap ceiling becomes when a player is placed on LTIR.
The Hurricanes know they’ll need to use LTIR at some point, but they also don’t want to. Why? Because when you’re under the salary cap ceiling, you accrue cap space that can be used later in the season.
Time for another elevator pitch: How does accruing space work? Think of it this way — the salary cap is calculated daily, so each day of the 192-day NHL season counts toward the cap. If a player has a $1 million AAV on the day opening rosters are submitted, and spends the whole season with the team, he will cost $1 million against the cap.
Conversely, if a team has $1 million in cap space, that number grows each day the team has that space. At the halfway point of the season — Day 96 on the league calendar — that $1 million opens up twice as much cap space.
Using our fictional Coyotes in another example, if they had stayed exactly $1 million under the cap until Day 96, they would now have the space to add a $2 million AAV player. That’s because they’re only paying half — $1 million — of the total amount the player will make in the season.
Simply put, staying under the cap and accruing space allows teams to add players during the season — specifically at the trade deadline — whose cap hit is much higher than what the team’s flat cap space appears to be.
OK, so the Hurricanes want to stay under the cap, but they also know they don’t want Fast’s $2.4 million in space to go to waste. What next?
Enter Montgomery.
There is no better time to enter LTIR than the beginning of the season, when teams can shift players around who otherwise won’t be on the NHL roster and use their salaries to get as close to the cap ceiling as they can. That way, when the team does enter LTIR, it is gaining as much space as possible to add more salary.
Montgomery, a 2021 sixth-round pick, is a project defenseman who wasn’t a contender to make the roster. Carolina, by giving Montgomery a contract Sunday that fit their needs, were able to get within $3 of the $88 million ceiling. Now if Carolina puts Fast on LTIR, they would have all but $3 of his cap hit to spend on a player.
Still, anyone looking at PuckPedia had to wonder: What about veterans Joakim Ryan and Riley Stillman? Both are hurt and, therefore, can’t be assigned to the minor leagues, where they would earn less money on two-way deals and not count against the cap. Why don’t their AAVs — $775,000 each — count against the cap while Fast’s does?
It’s because neither Ryan, who played last season in the Swedish Hockey League, nor Stillman, who was in North America but spent the entire year in the AHL, played in an NHL game last season. That absolves Carolina from having to count them against their cap when injured to start the season.
Having Stillman on the roster, however, does benefit the Hurricanes. On the day opening rosters were due, they put him on LTIR, even though he costs nothing against the cap with his injury, and set their cap recapture number — that maneuvering that put them within $3 of the cap — to maximize LTIR space down the road.
Players such Ryan, Stillman and Fast who are on regular injured reserve or LTIR do not count against the Hurricanes’ 23-man roster limit, though Fast’s AAV still does impact Carolina’s cap. So does Lemieux’s $775,000 cap since he, as coach Rod Brind’Amour revealed Wednesday, is injured but played in the NHL last year. For now, Stillman is not on regular injured reserve, but has the roster space to carry him.
So the Hurricanes’ opening roster cost $87,999,997 toward the $88 million salary cap ceiling. Those three dollars would barely accrue enough space to acquire a Venti drink from Starbucks at the deadline, so before Friday’s first game, Carolina will want to get further under the cap to start accruing space.
They also, however, wanted one of their rookies, Blake, on the roster and practicing with the team before the opener against the Lightning. On Tuesday. Carolina sent down Montgomery and called up Blake but … uh-oh, there’s another problem.
Montgomery’s NHL cap hit, configured to get the Hurricanes as close as possible to the $88 million ceiling, is $854,910. So Carolina could only call up a player making $854,913, right? Blake, however, costs $905,833.
Welcome back, our old friend LTIR. By shifting Fast to LTIR, Carolina has plenty of space to carry the extra money Blake makes over Montgomery.
Most believe the Hurricanes are now stuck with a maximum salary cap of $90,399,997 — the team’s opening night cap hit plus Fast’s $2.4 million — for the season and unable to accrue space. However, any team under $88 million in salary accrues cap space, even if they’ve entered LTIR.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs, with a current cap hit over $93.1 million thanks to LTIR, could find their way under $88 million, they would see their cap space grow as the season progresses. That’s not going to happen for the Leafs, but it’s not difficult for Carolina.
That’s why the Hurricanes put Jost on waivers Wednesday. If he is claimed or sent to the AHL, Carolina will erase his $775,000 from the cap and again be in the black, building cap space for a future move while also having nearly all of Fast’s $2.4 million in their back pocket.
It’s a delicate dance that confounds and confuses, one nearly anyone would have trouble unfurling.
The Hurricanes, with forward-thinking GM Eric Tulsky and his staff — including team cap wizard Earl Schwartz — are solving cap mysteries in a way that would make Hercule Poirot proud.
(Photo of Jesper Fast: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
