The NHL can’t, nor should they, hold a team to a hard deadline on a player that has missed MULTIPLE YEARS due to needing an experimental surgery to attempt a comeback. Sucks for other teams if he comes back and plays at a high level, but this circumstance is completely understandable to anyone who doesn’t have an agenda. Call it cap circumvention if you want but to take offence in this instance is silly.If Colorado has used his cap space and Landeskog is ready for day 1 of the playoffs but not a moment sooner, it’s exactly the same as Tampa/Vegas.
The question isn’t the validity of the injuries. It’s the timing of health coinciding exactly with the moment it no longer becomes a cap concern.
It’ll be the same if Kane is ready day 1 for the Oilers.
All of these teams are circumventing the cap and the league just looks the other way.
This is not a comparable to any other situation the league has faced.