On Tuesday, the NHL issued a statement saying that it would be closely monitoring transactions, especially those involving injured players who may be placed on the long-term injured list of their new team, bypassing the salary cap and then returning to play in the playoffs, when the mass no longer counts. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/Marqueur/status/1630613904467410945?t=CgjekB0qiy3Gg7imYm13OA&s=19'> </a></blockquote></div> It's pretty clear that teams looking to acquire injured players who don't count against the cap in order to play them in the playoffs will be scrutinized very closely. However, as noted by Frank Seravalli, the NHL memo does not take into account one very important factor. Teams with players currently on the long-term injured list (LTIR) can take the available payroll of those players to acquire others and thus activate the injured player(s) in the playoffs. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1630604015951134721?t=MHnAYRcfQ6E5JcvCFlf5mg&s=19'> </a></blockquote></div> Take the Avalanche and Gabriel Landeskog for example. The forward earns 7 million per season and has not played all year. The team could theoretically trade for 7 million and activate their captain in the first game of the playoffs. So if a team is mortgaged with injuries and acquires healthy players, that's okay. But if they acquire injured players who have a good chance of returning to play in the playoffs, it's not okay. So there is always the possibility that a team will go over the salary cap during spring ball, which definitely doesn't solve the problem. To be continued...