Las Vegas places three questionable players on long-term injured list and NHL quickly approves it

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Jeff Drouin
April 13, 2022 (9:54)

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Last night, it went unnoticed, but the Vegas Golden Knights found a way (miraculously) to activate their captain Mark Stone and insert him into their lineup, to try to get into the playoffs, last second.

How is this possible? Knowing how much trouble they got into with the salary cap, with the acquisition of Jack Eichel and the failed Evgeny Dadonov trade.

Well, last night, without warning, they placed no less than three players (simultaneously) on the long-term injured list... Unbelievable!

"We confirm that #Vegas placed William Carrier, Nolan Patrick and Laurent Brossoit on LTIR, giving them an additional $4.925 million in payroll relief. That gave them a total of $9.93 million in usable space and the space they needed to activate Stone and his $9.5 million salary." - CapFriendly

You can guess that there is a lot of backlash. Why?

Because it took everything from a team like the Montreal Canadiens at the beginning of the season to be able to place Shea Weber on the LTIR. They came to investigate TWICE to make sure Weber was eligible. (We are talking about a player whose career is over)

And now they quickly approve these three placements on the LTIR, no questions asked? We're talking about three players with injuries that weren't so much considered major. (before yesterday)

Bottom line: Miraculously, the Golden Knights got out of trouble with their (brace yourself) 7 players on the LTIR.

"This is the most simultaneous number of players a team has had on LTIR since our inception in 2015. #VegasBorn currently has 7 players on LTIR." - CapFriendly

An all-time record that comes at the perfect time for Vegas. It's a wickedly nice coincidence...