The Flyers saved 5 mil plus in cap space when they put Pronger on LTIR for like 4 seasons, then traded him to ARZ . Everyone knew he was done and they figured out a way to skirt the cap by not having him retire.
The LTIR increases cap space so you can go over your daily limit. However, the main idea of the LTIR is to cut a team a break when a player gets injured and won't be coming back the rest of the season, excluding playoffs. So, they allow the one extra player on the roster, etc. and you go over. The kicker to the LTIR is that if the injured player comes back during the season, the whole thing is retroactive and treated just like the regular IR rules. The regular IR rules don't grant cap relief, you just get to go from 23 to 24 players, and they all have to fit. So, it's tricky with whether teams will use LTIR. I agree with dam1156 comments, but then add my caveat here. Think about it. If using LTIR was simple, teams would never use regular IR. They'd just use LTIR and go over the cap. In Pronger case, you don't get your paycheck if you retire. Next year, Matt Greene won't get his paycheck if he retires. But, if Matt is LTIR for the whole season, the Kings can go safely over the cap for the season (24 players including Greene). The thing is that a team can't tell a player he's still injured. If Matt claims he's healthy and wants to actually play, he has that right. The Kings can send him to Ontario also, but only save about 950k in cap space. So, Matt can essentially retire while still on the payroll by claiming he's still injured. The Kings put him on LTIR, go over cap, Matt gets paid all year and everyone is happy. So, as dam1156 stated, the cap space is created a buyout with penalty, trade for draft pick, or Matt actually retires, which he won't do because of 2.5 million reasons, just like
Scuderi didn't retire last year for 3.75 million reasons. I would not either!!!
