“Are Such a Joke”: Former NHL Star Gives a Bold Statement Against the Franchise After the Trade Deadline

At times, to balance out the salary cap situation, NHL team managements change players around the trade deadline. This is one of the reasons the teams trade for players who undergo long-term injuries, even when they won’t play. It’s a way for the teams to gather “future assets”. The justifications could vary- whether to save money or to top up the salary cap.

The Arizona Coyotes picked up two players during the trade deadline, players that might never play for the team. While they might have their reasons, the decision is still facing some ridicule. John Scott, who played 11 games with the Arizona Coyotes during the 2015-16 season, recently took to Twitter to criticize the Coyotes on this decision.

John Scott expresses his displeasure for the Coyotes

The Arizona Coyotes have been heavily dealing with LTIR contracts, and Scott has condemned the practice. He posted a tweet saying, “The Coyotes are such a joke, Bettman is worried about teams using LTIR to spend more money but he is ok with them using LTIR to not spend anything and ice an AHL team in a college arena. They now have almost 30 million in LTIR dead money, they only pay their players 43 million!”

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The Arizona Coyotes recently acquired Jakob Voracek for an $8.25-million cap hit from the Columbus Blue Jackets. This came just after a week of trading Shea Weber and the $7.9-million hit attached to him. These two, along with Bryan Little, form the Coyotes Long Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) who are not expected to play in the league ever again. However, they help the Coyotes hit the salary floor.

With a salary cap comes a floor that NHL teams are required to spend. The reason why this practice is useful for the Coyotes is that it can help them meet the salary cap without spending actual money. And this is exactly what has been opposed by John Scott.

The Coyotes don’t want to spend money

According to Scott, the Coyotes’ payroll in real money is in and around $40 million. This is $20 million less than the $61 million figure. These players can be said to be ostensibly retired players. Therefore, the teams don’t need to pay them what they are claiming their cap to be. The salary cap of these players is usually much lower than the advertised value.

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While this is not something considered to be outrightly illegal or wrong, former players would get angry because the teams are not ready to spend money, they just want to show they are. The teams can meet their floor requirement without actually spending money. Scotts’ allegation is that they are exploiting this loophole.

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