Leafs need to be under the cap to start the season obviously.
Do we need to be under to start the season and then can apply the Horton relief?
or do we apply the Horton relief at any time before the season when calculating?
I have heard different opinions on this.
Generally the answer here is both (with some exceptions) to the rule as per CBA, that is why there is some grey area here.
Usually come the start of the regular season all teams submit their final 23 max rosters and must be cap compliant ie < $83 mil (2019-20), then teams are allowed for put injured players on IR and LTIR and replace them with healthy bodies for game #1, after being approved by NHL.
However the exception to the rule comes in the case of players that have been on long term IR already and
missed over a full season which is the case with Horton.. He would fail his team physical and then Leafs could essentially place him on LTIR before submitting their final rosters for opening night cap compliance, and could already replace Horton (with say Marleau) and that would allow Leafs to submit a 24 man roster pushing Horton's $5.3 mil LTIR above the $83 mil cap upper limit via this exception allowing for dead contracts on team books.
During the offseason however the CBA sets up a
+%10 slush fund that attempts to account for these types of players, allowing teams to exceed the hard cap figure temporarily. This is by design because of Offersheets and Arbitration cases and other things that can't be planned for and injured players shouldn't prevent a team from keeping their own players, by things outside their own control.
PS. However there is also a catch with using LTIR as a team
must spend to the cap ceiling, in order to qualify for the LTIR reimbursement and push it above the hard cap. Last year the Leafs intentionally stayed below that hard cap ceiling trying to save cap space for rookie bonuses of Matthews and Marner etc, so those costs could be absorbed in last year's cap at season end and not be carried forward to his year as a Cap penalty..
** Based on the new capfriendly listing it appears all this rookie bonus are now off the books with a clean slate for this upcoming season.