What is LTIR: Explaining the hockey rules to fans

On Wednesday, the Vegas Golden Knights got some terrible news regarding their star defenseman, Shea Theodore. The representative for Team Canada was checked into the boards by Sweden's Adrian Kempe, suffering an upper-body injury. He was declared out for the rest of the 4 Nations Face-Off, which was bad enough.

Now, the Golden Knights are saying he's expected to be week-to-week with said upper-body injury. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, well... It just did. What's the team going to do when he's expected to be out until the Stanley Cup playoffs?

To make things worse, the long-term injured reserve (LTIR) conspiracy theorists are out in full force. First, they accused Mark Stone of faking a life-threatening injury so the team could use the cap space. Now, they're going after a helpless defenseman who suffered an injury during a tournament aimed at national pride. Sometimes, you can't win.

Therefore, it's time to educate the masses on what LTIR actually means. That way, it's the end-all be-all resource for everything related to the rules.

What does it mean?

What are the stipulations?

Without such clarifications, the skeptics will launch a PuckWars network accusing Gary Bettman of turning the frogs into Golden Knights fans. So here's the definitive breakdown of the rules.

What is LTIR used for?

Well, dear reader. To qualify for this stipulation means you must be expected to miss 10 NHL games minimum AND 24 days of the NHL season. When a team is on LTIR, they can exceed the salary cap. However, it doesn't remove the cap hit altogether. The amount that a team can exceed the salary cap from LTIR is known as the "LTIR pool".

What else is there about the LTIR pool?

Say your team is cap compliant on opening day sans the long-term injured reserve or using it any point during the season. That pool is the cap hit of the long-term injured reserve player minus the team's cap space when they receive such a designation. Take Shea Theodore for example, who has a cap hit of $5.2 million. If the Vegas Golden Knights have $100,000 of cap space in a hypothetical scenario, the team will have $5.1 million in their pool.

This allows Kelly McCrimmon to make other fans' heads explode and make as many moves as humanly possible. That way, they can be as close to the cap as possible. If a team isn't cap compliant without using the long-term injured reserve, that pool becomes the amount the team exceeds the cap by.

Does the 10-game designation apply retroactively?

Yes, it does! This also applies to the regular injured reserve, where Nicolas Roy was retroactively placed to December 16, 2024. As long as those 10 games and 24 games are applied, they can get off sooner. Now, cap space is no longer accrued when a player hits the long-term designation. That means a team can't use it for later. Once the player comes off LTIR, the team's annual cap hit for the day must be under the salary cap.

Do other teams use LTIR?

Yes, they do! In fact, EVERY good team has used LTIR during a Stanley Cup run since it was implemented. Take Nikita Kucherov as an example. The Tampa Bay Lightning superstar was given this designation during the team's 2021 Stanley Cup trek. Of course, fans were outraged that a player with a cap hit of $9.5 million would return and win a championship with the team. As for 2024-25, 11 teams are projected to finish with a final cap hit over $88 million.

If you notice anything from the list, the Vegas Golden Knights aren't on the list. However, teams like the Colorado Avalanche, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Edmonton Oilers are. Yes, the Golden Knights might be on that list later should Theodore be given the dreaded four-letter designation. However, they're not the only ones using it. In fact, the better general managers aren't afraid of using it to better their teams.

So is the team in gold cheating? No. Other teams (you know, the ones mainly in the playoff race) are also using the rules to alleviate their situations. It's also perfectly within the rules, meaning nobody is circumventing the cap. Gary Bettman wouldn't let the team take the ice if that were the case. Plain and simple. You can take off the tinfoil hats now.