The Daily Faceoff Show: Are the Vegas Golden Knights still gaming the system with LTIR?

Here we have Mark Stone activated before the playoffs, so this isn’t a perfect Nikita Kucherov situation, in which he’s parachuting in just in time for the playoffs, but there is some manipulation going on here by the Golden Knights, with these players that are all suddenly hurt just in time for Stone to come back.

Do you see this as a new evolution of the Tampa Bay villainy? Is this getting shady?”

Burnside: “It’s not exploiting, assuming those players are actually injured. And you have to wonder, is management in Los Angeles, Dallas, Nashville, all of the teams fighting for one of those couple of playoff spots, how do they feel about this move?

You have to trust that the NHL does what it always says it does in these situations, which is to watch very closely what the medical issues are that surround these players that were conveniently put on the LTIR. To me, it’s the timing that brings up the issue for people, it’s a natural reaction because the convenience to get Mark Stone back in the lineup can’t be ignored.

You have to trust that the NHL is looking at this closely, and if these players aren’t injured, the NHL would move in. It isn’t shady to me, but it’s something that I’m sure doesn’t sit well with those teams who are competing with Vegas for playoff spots, especially when those playoff spots are worth literally millions of dollars.”

You can watch the full episode here…