(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
We’ll never know if the Golden Knights were trying to mimic the 2021 Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay Lightning. When Vegas’ front office pulled the trigger on the Jack Eichel trade, speculation grew across the league that the club would attempt to field a team over the cap in the postseason. Things have changed dramatically for Vegas since then but it didn’t stop NHL GM’s from leaving anonymous notes in the league’s complaint box.
There’s been a lot of white noise around Vegas in how they’ve treated LTIR this season. Last year’s Tampa, this year’s Vegas. At least in perception. Gary Bettman and Bill Daly could not have been more unequivocal saying Vegas has been transparent. There’s no issues with the way they’re handling their LTIR and their business. –Pierre LeBrun on TSN
The noise was loud enough that the topic of LTIR maneuvering came up yesterday at the GM meetings.
Now, is there validity to say that we get to the playoffs and we’ve got a cap of $81.5 million and fundamentally that means we should only be able to dress $81.5 million in the playoffs? Sure, that makes sense. I think you’ve gotta go back and study it. –Brad Treliving, Calgary GM to Sportsnet
It was reported that the league broached the subject out of concerns that some believed Tampa bought last year’s Cup. Sure, adding Nikita Kucherov to the lineup on Game 83 is unfair but it would be next to impossible to prove Tampa stretched out injuries.
In fact, two-time Stanley Cup-winning GM Julien BriseBois wasn’t bashful about his feelings. His club won back-to-back championships, you think the speculation or finger-pointing matters to him?
If we hadn’t won the Cup last season, perhaps we wouldn’t be the poster child, but I’d rather win the Stanley Cup and be the poster child anyway, knowing that these situations have happened in the past. In 2015, we played against the Chicago Blackhawks in the Final and they had the example of Patrick Kane at the time and won the Cup. The situation we had last year with Kucherov—there’s 32 teams and it happens; there are many teams in LTI –Julien BriseBois, Lightning GM to Sportsnet
It’s possible several teams will be over the salary cap in the playoffs. Which drives front offices to ignore cap manipulation.
Ken Holland of Edmonton was the GM that brought that discussion. He didn’t accuse of anybody of cheating and he was very careful to make that point. He likes the idea of, in the playoffs you can have whatever amount of money on your roster but when you dress your lineup for the game you got to be under the cap. He had a lot of support in there but the league made it very clear it was a CBA issue.-Elliotte Friedman, Sportsnet
BriseBois refutes that league GM’s try to cheat the cap. He believes the combination of injuries and a tight salary cap make it difficult to compete for the Stanley Cup without adding reinforcements. Take it for what it’s worth.
It’s not a question of teams purposely trying to take advantage of LTI. It’s more of a function of the salary cap not going up and clubs already having financial commitments to players that have to be respected, and that puts enormous pressure on everyone. We’re no different than anybody else when you look at the cap for all the other teams. Most teams have had to go above the cap at one point or another this season. –BriseBois, Lightning GM to Sportsnet
There is limited evidence the Golden Knights or any other team planned on loop-holing their way to the Stanley Cup Finals. However, this season GM’s were quick to risk late season cap suffocation.
The problem is a lot of people don’t like it and they want to change it but I’m not sure that there’s a solution that everyone is going to agree with. It’s one thing to say but it’s complicated to actually do. –Friedman, Sportsnet
Unfortunately, next season’s $1M cap bump won’t solve any future trickery.
One last note from the GM meetings involving Vegas, the failed Evgenii Dadonov trade drama hasn’t been put to rest. It’s believed that the Golden Knights front office may act on their frustrations with the Ottawa Senators.
It’s possible that Vegas might lodge a complaint about the way this all went down. There won’t be any NHL punishment towards the Senators but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be some sort of complaint process. –Friedman, Sportsnet
The complaint will likely have no impact but Vegas’ frustrations will be on record.
Richie-Rich
Foley, as a West Point Army guy would not be involved in unethical behavior. If evidence is uncovered that shows the VGK FO has acting unfaithfully with their use of the LTIR then people need to be sent packing.
No evidence?
Shut the Fuck Up
George L.
West Point Graduate doesn’t guarantee anything.
I would hope standard business ethics matters more.
Rick Schoen
Standard business ethics dictate that you lie, cheat and swindle as long as you don’t get caught.
Tom
It’s obvious that teams are not required to forward NTC lists to the league office, otherwise it would have been caught. That probably needs to change to avoid this ever happening again.
Blitz
Personally I think they should do away with the no trade list. Used to be, no one had it and now almost everyone has a 8 or 10 team list and then guys like stone/petra have no movement clauses which means a team is stuck with them no matter what. I just find it in bad taste and takes the fairness out of the team trading side of things.
Galdom
I don’t mean to sound like a dick here as I am a moral person in my every day life but taking advantage of loopholes is a part of professional competitive sports. As a fan I want my team to do everything possible to win. To a point. I don’t condone PED’s.
Richie-Rich
Just win baby mentality! If the NHL wants to close the loophole they will. Apparently they don’t.
Mike StG
Typical of how Jason always takes the worst, most critical and negative view of VGK front office. He always thinks they have bad motives, and are stupid and overpay players. And now, they are supposedly “used as an example” at the GM meetings. The GMs didn’t single out Vegas. TBL is the team that actually did it, and the Hawks in the mid-2010’s. There is no evidence that Vegas is circumventing the cap using LTI, or even attempted or strategized such manipulation. Bettman was clear in saying Vegas has been very transparent with the league. Yet we keep reading and hearing Jason/Ken’s unfounded suspicions and claims/beliefs based on their ‘logical’ assumptions. And now this article, which should really have not put VGK in the title; if anyone it should have been Tampa Bay who was named. Remember “$18 Million over the Cap”?
I’m a faithful SinBin follower for years and have listed to hundreds of hours of their podcasts, read and comment on game posts, follow on Twitter, Periscopes, YouTubes, Goalie Interferences, etc. But I sometimes feel like they enjoy a little too much being overly critical and negative, and that it feeds fan negativity on this site and these posts. Maybe it just keeps things interesting, but occasionally I wonder whether they should change their name to “VegasIsSinner.com”.
🙂
Richie-Rich
You can always unsubscribe. Why spend “hundreds of hours” following a site that makes you feel uneasy about the content? Me? I come to listen to the musings of The hockey GOD!
I get my doses of daily positive feelings from Pistol Pete.
ROTFLMAO
Mike StG
Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment? 🙂
They do a lot of great things, and are the most comprehensive and creative in creating content about the team and for fans. It was just an opinion that I felt was worth expressing. The emoji at the end was added to convey that I don’t take it all that seriously. After all, it’s sports – not life or death. And I follow all sorts of other hockey media and content regularly, which gives me a more rounded view of Vegas as compared with what’s happening elsewhere in the league.
I like PP, but he’s eternally optimistic. Given the events of this season one can always hope, but expectations of playoffs are realistically dwindling. I posted last week that by this weekend Vegas might be out of it. And right now they are not.
If they win in Vancouver tomorrow and depending on the outcome of other games their chances may improve a little. But mainly, other than Dallas, their rivals for the playoff spots won’t have games in hand as they did 10 days ago. So at least the possibilities will become clearer by Sunday. For example, it seems more likely now the only way Vegas makes the playoffs is to end up 2nd or 3rd in the Pacific, and not in a wild card spot.
The Kings getting 3 points out of EDM & CGY was huge. Two regulation losses would’ve put Vegas 1 point behind them, with the Kings having a slightly tougher schedule of remaining games. EDM could falter – they’re playing well but 7 of their last 13 games will be against teams currently in playoff position, including twice against COL. Vegas only has 4 games against playoff teams and none against COL.
Things could get really interesting over the next 3 weeks.