Lightning GM Suggests LTIR Kucherov Controversy Just “Stars Aligning”

The controversy that is the Tampa Bay Lightning potentially skirting the NHL salary cap rules when it comes to LTIR is picking up momentum, and to the point that team general manager Julien BriseBois felt the need to address the chatter during his media avail on Saturday. Noting that the team did everything by the rule book, he said, “the stars just so happened to align” for the team.

Related: Kucherov Has Message for Dougie Hamilton After Salary Cap Comments

BriseBois explained: “As for how this all came to be where Nikita was placed on LTI for the entire season and was able to come back for Game 1 and look as good as he has, when you place a player on long-term injury and get the salary cap exemption, you have to justify that to the NHL.” He added that this year the NHL investigated all of the potential LTI cap circumvention issues, certainly the Kucherov one and he said, “we had to be able to justify the surgery, the rehab time, the return to play clearance to make sure that everything was done according to the rules.” He said, “Those were the cards that we were dealt.”

BriseBois said the organization knew that Kucherov would need five months to rehabilitate from surgery and it just so happened this season was only lasting four months thanks to the pandemic. “He was able to have surgery, miss the entire season, we got some cap relief during the season and he was able to come back a little sooner than expected.” The GM noted that is just so happened to coincide with Game 1 of the playoffs and the stars aligned for the team.

Just How It Played Itself Out… Huh

I’m sure BriseBois believes these comments will help. Not that it matters, but they probably won’t. Fans are going to have a hard time buying the fact that it “just so happened” to be that after months on the shelf, Kucherov was suddenly well enough to be ready for the playoffs, and not one game sooner or one game later that the team’s very first postseason contest.

The GM tried to say that it could have gone very differently. He noted, “When I was looking at all the possible scenarios and all the possible outcomes, none of them were as good as this one. And there were a lot of ones that weren’t very good.” That won’t matter. It’s plain as day that this is about the biggest coincidence a team could have had with the organization’s best player. Whether the NHL went along with it, let is slide or actually couldn’t find any reason to pursue the matter, it’s hard to not connect the dots here.

Tampa Bay Fans Arguing Team Followed Rules

Considering the CBA allows for this, the Lightning didn’t break any rules and BriseBois is justified playing it off like it’s a happy coincidence, especially if the NHL checked it out. Meanwhile, Tampa fans are asking others to think about why the Lightning would choose to keep their best player out?

One Twitter user wrote, “I’m sick of this stupid narrative. Like the team would hold out their best players and risk not make the playoffs! They followed the rules period! Just because there are teams that lost and don’t have the players Tampa has! Get over it! Do better next year!” This is a sentiment echoed by many Tampa fans who believe everyone else is jealous.

The only things this person is conveniently choosing to ignore is that one, the Lighting would have made the playoffs anyway. They’re a good team. Two, the added benefit of having David Savard join the club is easily worth holding out Kucherov in meaningless games. Three, stars just don’t align like this, without a little help.

Again, Tampa Bay didn’t technically do anything wrong here. The rules are there and they played by them. At the same time, you’re going to have trouble convincing most fans that the organization and the GM did the ethical thing here and are trying to play it off like they simply got lucky.

Next: How the Toronto Maple Leafs Can Win a Mitch Marner Trade