You'd need an owner willing to spend $20 million (if uninsured) to free up cap space by going into LTIR. That money would be spending over the cap. Owners aren't going to be happy about that.
For similar or less in most cases they could just buyout their players and not deal with the LTIR.
18.75m. I'd think that a top tier team would probably be happy to spend 19m if it allowed them to trade someone who's making similar money and tying up a roster spot and cap space, but was under performing.
I mean do you think that Minny is happy with how Pomi has been performing for them? He's owed 16.5m and has a 5.6m cap hit and his stats have been declining the last couple of seasons. Perhaps he turns it around. But if he's not and MacA is going to spend a good chunk of his career on LTIR, then I could see them going down this road.
There's a couple other options on here, but I don't see OTT going after someone like Gaborik or Brown. Simply too much actual cash out the door. The same likely applies to Callahan.