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NHL » New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs

New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847438]	Tue, 02 September 2025 12:29

Skookum Jim
Messages: 5337
Registered: March 2006
Location: Burnaby, BC

5 Cups

For this year's playoffs.. Teams will be required to submit a cap compliant, 20-man roster to NHL Central Registry before each playoff game.

Quote:

Frank Seravalli@frank_seravalli

Sources: The #NHL and #NHLPA have agreed to a rolling implementation schedule for CBA changes.

Among them: the new playoff salary cap system will come into effect *this season* for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs.

CBA Rule Changes here;

https://puckpedia.com/news/upcoming-LTIR-changes

[Updated on: Tue, 02 September 2025 12:35]

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847439 is a reply to message #847438 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 12:41

smyth260
Messages: 1207
Registered: November 2007

1 Cup

From the puckpedia article:

Quote:

Below shows the new playoff accounting rules applied to last playoff game in 2025, Game 6 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final. The Salary Cap in 2024-25 was $88M, meaning that the Edmonton Oilers would have been $7,353,277 below the Playoff Cap in Game 6 had it been in effect, while the Florida Panthers would have been $5,038,282 above the Playoff Cap

Barf. Shoulda used it even harder.

Clean house or bust

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847440 is a reply to message #847439 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 12:45

Kr55
Messages: 12032
Registered: May 2002
Location: Edmonton

6 Cups

smyth260 wrote on Tue, 02 September 2025 12:41

From the puckpedia article:

Quote:

Barf. Shoulda used it even harder.

If you're not cheating, you're not trying.

Pretty remarkable that Katz paid a GM $25,000,000 to do the latter.

"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013

"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015

5 x $5,000,000

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847441 is a reply to message #847438 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 12:48

Skookum Jim
Messages: 5337
Registered: March 2006
Location: Burnaby, BC

5 Cups

From article:
https://puckpedia.com/news/upcoming-LTIR-changes

Quote:

New Playoff Salary Accounting Rules

For each playoff game, the total cap hit of the dressed players must be under the cap ceiling for that season. Playoff cap calculations follow these rules:

Performance and Games Played bonuses are excluded from a player’s playoff cap hit.
Player cap hits are not pro-rated (i.e. the player’s full-season cap hit is used, even if they were acquired or called up mid-season).

Acquired players’ cap hits net of retention count fully (without pro-ration) against the playoff cap (e.g., if 25% salary is retained by the original team, 75% fully counts against the acquiring team’s playoff cap, even if they were acquired mid-season).

Dead cap space (e.g. buried contracts, buyouts, cap recapture penalties, and retained salaries) that were incurred during the season counts toward the playoff cap. This means that if a player had a buried cap hit for part of the season, the accumulated cap hit charged during the season counts as a playoff cap hit regardless of if that player plays or is even still on the team. For example, Spencer Knight had a buried cap hit of $3.35M on the first day of the regular season for Florida in 24-25. This means that Florida would have a playoff cap hit of $17K for that, even though he was traded and no longer on the roster.

For the team that retains cap hit, the retention is pro-rated based on the remaining regular-season days at the time of transaction (e.g. if a team retains 25% of a player’s salary in a transaction, the 25% charged to the retaining team is pro-rated. If that retention occurred halfway through the season, the retaining cap would have a playoff cap hit equal to 25%*50%= 12.5% of the full cap hit). Note that the team that receives the retained player does not have their cap hit pro-rated for the portion of the season the player was on their roster.

Below shows the new playoff accounting rules applied to last playoff game in 2025, Game 6 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final.

The Salary Cap in 2024-25 was $88M, meaning that the Edmonton Oilers would have been $7,353,277 below the Playoff Cap in Game 6 had it been in effect, while the Florida Panthers would have been $5,038,282 above the Playoff Cap.

https://gcdnb.pbrd.co/images/hkfBPUQRbcDT.png?o=1

https://gcdnb.pbrd.co/images/UL3yjrFIV8qb.png?o=1

[Updated on: Tue, 02 September 2025 12:54]

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847443 is a reply to message #847438 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 12:52

Skookum Jim
Messages: 5337
Registered: March 2006
Location: Burnaby, BC

5 Cups

This is interesting from the comments section of the Puckpedia article.. one guy asks about the tactic of "accrual" of cap space for the trade deadline that teams have used in the past.. puckpedia guy says that it no longer helps for the playoffs.. you can pick the guy up for the regular season at reduced cap hit.. but he'll be 100% cap hit in playoffs.. if I read that correctly.. ?

I suspect this will alter what a lot of teams plan to do with their rosters before the start of the season.. regarding playing under the cap to accrue space for the deadline.. maybe why the NHLPA went along with implementing this as soon as they have.. more NHL cap will be consumed during the year..

Quote:

Nonpoint: Wouldn't the new playoff LTIR rules negate the value in banking cap space? It's totally legal to have a 100M roster with a 90M cap without using LTIR. Now that will be removed?

Taylor from PuckPedia: Correct. It removes any benefit to accrual for teams in the playoffs. If a team acquires a player with 25% of the year remaining, in the playoffs he’s 100%.

[Updated on: Tue, 02 September 2025 13:05]

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847444 is a reply to message #847439 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 13:02

Skookum Jim
Messages: 5337
Registered: March 2006
Location: Burnaby, BC

5 Cups

smyth260 wrote on Tue, 02 September 2025 11:41

From the puckpedia article:

Quote:

Barf. Shoulda used it even harder.

Pretty telling that the only team "investigated" by the NHL for cap circumvention last year was Edmonton with Kane.. courtesy of C. Campbell and Bettman.. while Florida was the one icing a team a mile over the cap.

[Updated on: Tue, 02 September 2025 13:03]

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847445 is a reply to message #847444 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 13:13

Kr55
Messages: 12032
Registered: May 2002
Location: Edmonton

6 Cups

Skookum Jim wrote on Tue, 02 September 2025 13:02

smyth260 wrote on Tue, 02 September 2025 11:41

From the puckpedia article:

Quote:

Barf. Shoulda used it even harder.

Just glad they dropped it. I think we did create an opening because the messaging from the Oilers camp and Kane's seemed totally out of sync for some time. The messaging was out of sync so badly that we actually paid extra to a team to retain cap space at the deadline. Cap space retention we did not end up needing.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a team trying the LTIR scam that had the team and player out of sync with the media on when the player was expected to come back into the lineup. Classic clumsy stuff you expect from our org.

[Updated on: Tue, 02 September 2025 13:16]

"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013

"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015

5 x $5,000,000

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847446 is a reply to message #847438 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 13:16

Skookum Jim
Messages: 5337
Registered: March 2006
Location: Burnaby, BC

5 Cups

I suspect trade deadline "frenzy" will be a lot less eventful.. teams will have to actually make cap space for the player if they plan to use him for the playoffs.. and the magic playoff "Holy Resurrection" of a team's LTIR player for game one puck drop will be drastically reduced..

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847447 is a reply to message #847445 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 13:27

Skookum Jim
Messages: 5337
Registered: March 2006
Location: Burnaby, BC

5 Cups

Kr55 wrote on Tue, 02 September 2025 12:13

Skookum Jim wrote on Tue, 02 September 2025 13:02

smyth260 wrote on Tue, 02 September 2025 11:41

From the puckpedia article:

Quote:

Barf. Shoulda used it even harder.

It was a clumsy handling by Kane/Oilers.. but the whole LTIR thing was a long running scam since Kucherov.. which the NHL happily ignored.. with a big wink-wink.. until the Oilers finally utilize it.. legitimately (Kane had two surgeries to recover from).. and then NHL decides to do their first investigation.. which was meaningless anyway.. the NHL couldn't ever force a player back on the ice before the player thinks he's sufficiently healed.. and the NHL could never medically prove he was healed.. it was NHL Corp. pageantry

[Updated on: Tue, 02 September 2025 13:29]

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Re: New LTIR Rules in Effect for 2025/26 Playoffs [message #847453 is a reply to message #847438 ]	Tue, 02 September 2025 21:04

Skookum Jim
Messages: 5337
Registered: March 2006
Location: Burnaby, BC

5 Cups

Florida will have to spill some cap once Tkchuk comes back.. they are currently $4.5M over the cap.. including Tkchuk's $9.5M.. but they currently have him on IR.. they might've been planning a full season LTIR .. but now he'd be full $9.5M hit for playoffs regardless if he was on LTIR all season..

So they either 1) trade out $4.5M in roster during the season.. and use Tkchuk in the playoffs.. or 2) keep Tkchuk on LTIR all season.. add players to the roster up to the cap limit.. then in the playoffs, add Tkchuk and trim the roster to be cap compliant game to game..

Either way.. probably not what Florida originally envisioned for this year.

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