Begone, Golden Knights

I'm not here to whine about the NHL's rules about salary caps in the playoffs. That's been done to death by hundreds, if not thousands, of people since the practice of using LTIR to gain an edge in the playoffs began. The loophole can't be closed until the new CBA is negotiated, so we can all give the "cheaters" comments a rest because, ultimately, teams will exploit loopholes. What we shouldn't overlook, though, is that the reigning Stanley Cup champions saw their defence of that title come to an end tonight at the hands of the Dallas Stars in Game Seven of their series.

I don't dislike the Golden Knights as much as some may imagine, but I do find their use of LTIR to be a tiny bit ridiculous when it came to Mark Stone's spleen injury this season. Let me say this upfront: the spleen can be easily injured of all the body's internal organs, and it can cause significant problems when it is injured. It hangs out just behind the lower-left section of the rib cage where the chest and abdomen meet. Contact sports such as hockey can cause injury to the spleen, so I'm not saying Stone wasn't injured. For all arguments' sakes, he was and I believe the Golden Knights did right by holding him out of the lineup to receive treatment.

Recovery for spleen injuries take anywhere from three to twelve weeks depending on the severity, so the timeline works out for Stone's recovery as he was diagnosed with the injury on February 20, was cleared to begin skating on April 12, and rejoined the Knights in game-ready form ten days later. Maybe he wasn't 100%, but he did have three goals in the seven games, looked fairly good when it came to his skating and physical play, and seemed to be in good health for the 18:23 of ice-time he was getting per game.

As per the National Library of Medicine,

"Two professional hockey players with grade III spleen injury were managed conservatively with serial CTs until radiographic and clinical findings suggested complete healing. They returned to full-contact hockey within 2 months without any complications."

That would align perfectly with the February-20-to-April-22 two-month period, so perhaps Stone's injury and recovery was fairly standard in allowing his general manager to acquire multiple high-priced players in his absence while returning precisely for the playoffs. For the third year in a row.

In case you've forgotten, Stone was put on LTIR with a back injury on February 9, 2022 before being activated on April 12 that season for the final nine games before the Golden Knights missed the playoffs.

Last season, Stone was injured on January 13 before being moved to LTIR on February 1 with what was described as a back injury, but looked every bit ready to start the playoffs where he helped Vegas win a Stanley Cup with zero flare-ups for that back injury.

And, of course, there was this season's spleen injury, so that's three campaigns in a row where the Golden Knights opened up $9.5 million to work with at the trade deadline. Quite a luxury to have, right?

Again, I can't hate the Golden Knights for playing by the very rules that the NHL wrote, and succeeding at figuring out how to work the loophole well enough so that they can capitalize at the trade deadline each and every year. That's masterful work by GM Kelly McCrimmon when it comes to improving his team, and he deserves praise for turning the tables on the parity that the NHL desperately craves and tries to enforce with the salary cap.

What I don't like, though, is that the NHL couldn't see this coming despite paying lawyers buckets of money to come up with the CBA. Seeing the Stars oust the Golden Knights tonight makes me smile because the one franchise that constantly exploits the rules is now out while the remaining eight teams will look to win the Stanley Cup with teams built within the constraints of the salary cap. This year's winner will have honoured the rule as it was written rather than trying to find a way to beat the system.

In saying that, there will be no repeat this season. Begone, Golden Knights, and we'll wait for the next major star to hit the LTIR list as you rebuild once more next season.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!