If a poll were held now about the most hated hockey club in the NHL, the Vegas Golden Knights would probably take the first place, due to the controversial handling of the salary cap.
The salary caps of the Stanley Cup favorites are practically without exception stuffed to bursting.
Vegas is no exception to this rule, entering the season more or less without reserves. Still, before the recent transfer deadline, they brought in power winger Anthony Mantha, versatile back Noah Hanifin and most importantly star center Tomáš Hertl. That is, reinforcements for a lot of money.
At the same time, it did not sacrifice any player of the basic lineup. “Just” a teenage hopeful, a farmer and a lot of draft picks.
The armament, which at first glance seems completely impractical, was possible thanks to captain Mark Stone, or rather thanks to his inclusion on the list of long-term injured hockey players in February. They are not included in the salary cap.
Stone, who earns an average of $9.5 million a year, freed up a lot of room for big signings.
However, it is possible that he will be back in the playoffs, where the salary cap suddenly ceases to apply. After all, that’s what happened last year, when Stone wasted the last months of the regular season, but he never missed the playoffs. And he significantly helped the Golden Knights to their first Stanley Cup.
Fans of competing clubs, expecting a repeat of this scenario, did not spare sharply critical comments after the announcement of Hertl’s exchange.
“It looks a little suspicious,” the former defenseman and now television analyst acknowledged their view TSN Marc Methot.
If Stone does start early or during the playoffs, the Golden Knights will have an unprecedentedly loaded team that would be impossible to put together under normal circumstances.
The fear of them will go away already at the end of the regular season, when Hertl, who had the cartilage in his painful knee cleaned in February, should jump in after convalescence.
“It’s almost unfair,” Methot commented on the arrival of the Czech center and others.
“However they do it, my view is that they just want to win games. And we’re having fun. In the end, it’s good for hockey to some extent,” summed up the Golden Knights’ approach.
Needless to say, they don’t break any rules. They just cleverly use the money for other purchases.
And that it bothers the fans of other teams? “Just face it. You hate the Knights because they’re run the way you want your club to be run. They spend. And they use every tool they can to spend even more. Working with a long-term injury list isn’t cheating. It’s cunning, smart .Mark Stone is legitimately on a roll (he has an injured spleen – editor’s note) and Vegas legitimately takes advantage of it. You’re only upset because you want your team to do it,” Mark Lazerus of the online journal told Nevada’s critics The Athletic.
But it’s not just about the fans. The actions of Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon are surprising even some of his colleagues from rival organizations.
“A couple of managers have said they’re not entirely comfortable with the idea of someone with a long-term injury not being able to play the last game of the regular season but be ready for the first playoff game in two or three days,” insider Elliotte Friedman revealed on Hockey Night in Canada.
A year ago, he left the marauding Stone in this way, and three years ago, Nikita Kučerov from Tampa.
It is therefore possible that in the next collective agreement between the NHL and the players’ unions (the current one expires in September 2026), the rules regarding the list of long-term injured players will change.
This year, however, Stone, who will definitely miss the rest of the regular season, can safely jump into the first game of the elimination battles. It depends on his health. And on whether Vegas will maintain a promotion position.
