from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Sixteen of the NHL’s 31 teams have already used the Long Term Injury exemption to remain in compliance with the cap, as documented and noted by CapFriendly. That is during the first month of the season.

Guess who is going to pay for all this?

Why, the players are going to pay, of course, and they are going to pay through additional escrow losses. Which is reasonably ironic, don’t you think, because the reason the players depressed the cap by activating just a 0.5 percent escalator was to limit escrow losses.

The higher the cap, which could have been in the $83 million range rather than the adopted $81.5 million, the less there is a need to place players on LTI.

It is believed the NHLPA has, at one stage or another of the talks with the NHL before each party decided not to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement by the prescribed September deadlines, proposed that the payouts to players on LTI not be counted against payroll. The union is wished luck on that....

continued plus more topics including this...

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when Taylor Hall went off on the home fans following the Devils’ 7-6 overtime loss to the Lightning on Wednesday that lowered his team’s record to 2-5-3, he didn’t seem like a fellow planning on spending the next nine years in New Jersey, did he?...