Early Trading: NHL plans to address LTIR/cap playoff issue in CBA talks

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss why there should be 'no alarm bells' with Brady Tkachuk's upper-body injury, the tight-lipped start to CBA extension negotiations between the NHL and NHLPA and the league's plans to address the LTIR/cap playoff issue in CBA talks.

Brady Tkachuk (day-to-day) to miss 2nd straight game with upper-body injury

Reda: Time for an update on all the latest news with our insider Pierre LeBrun.

Pierre, the Sens continue their battle to try to lock up a playoff spot at home tonight against Tampa. But will they have their captain in the lineup? Brady Tkachuk missed Tuesday's game after suffering that upper-body injury against the Pens on Sunday. Any news on that front, Pierre?

LeBrun: Yeah, so the Senators announced that Brady Tkachuk will be out for a second consecutive game. But I don't think there should be alarm bells here in this situation. What I was told even after that news was that he absolutely does remain day-to-day, that this is not an ailment that has gotten worse over the last couple of days, and in fact, as one source said, he's actually improving. But the Senators are being cautious with their captain, as they should be.

You know, they're not right on that line like Montreal and the Rangers and Columbus are, they've got a little more cushion there in their playoff chase. So I think being cautious with Brady Tkachuk is the right thing to do, and the other thing to remember is that this is a different ailment than what he was fighting through coming out of 4 Nations.

So again, everyone involved doesn't seem too concerned, but Brady Tkachuk missing a second consecutive game tonight.

NHL/NHLPA officially started CBA extension negotiations on Tuesday in New York City

Reda: Alright, let's get to the business of sport now. The NHL's got a new TV contract worth billions of dollars.
Now all they need is labour peace. Pierre, when we were at the GM meetings, Gary Bettman suggested he wanted to get down to serious talks with the PA at the start of April. Where are we on that front?

LeBrun: Well, he was true to his word Gino. Sources confirmed that the NHL/NHLPA very quietly officially began CBA extension negotiations Tuesday in New York City. Those negotiations continued today on Thursday in New York City. So, here we go. Let's see where this goes.

And one thing I will say to you, Gino, is that both sides have struck a deal to not play this out in public while they have these negotiations. They're not interested in providing a blow by blow of how the talks are going and neither side wants to comment publicly through this process. They want to keep it very much under wraps until and if, when, hopefully they have an extension to announce.

What I would say to that as someone who's covered a couple of lockouts is that if and when we do see an impromptu media session from either the league or the NHLPA, you know something's gone off the rails. So, hopefully that doesn't happen for every hockey fan watching here, but for now, they want to keep this quiet.

I did ask one source involved and said, ‘Is there any way to know how long this will take to get an extension done?’ Remember that Gary Bettman, Gino, said at the Board of Governors in December, when you and I were there, in a perfect world, could we have an extension to announce at the Stanley Cup Final in June? Well, that's when he thought CBA talks would start in February and these talks didn't start until this week. The source involved said to me no prediction on a timeline.

NHL plans to address LTIR/cap playoff issue in ongoing CBA discussions

Reda: But still somewhat optimistic by the sounds of it.

The NHL regular season ends two weeks from today and I think at that point we can count on a number of players coming off LTIR and being ready to skate in time for the playoffs. That's been a sore spot for a number of teams who see clubs go way over the cap come playoff time because there is no cap in the playoffs. Is that going to be addressed, Pierre?

LeBrun: The short answer is yes.

So yes, you're talking about a long-standing issue that a lot of GMs have wanted to tackle in the CBA. It started with Patrick Kane in 2015, miraculously recovering from a broken collarbone and playing in Game 1 of the playoffs as you may remember, and having a great playoff as the Hawks won another Cup. Nikita Kucherov, we all know about his situation, missing the whole regular season and showing up for the playoffs in ‘21. Mark Stone in ‘23 and so on.

But let me also say this, there are a number of teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, who are very clever at also using all the loopholes and all the language to their advantage when it comes to LTIR and the trade deadline, etc. This is not about isolated cases. A lot of teams in the league have maximized their muscle when it comes to LTIR.

But what I was told this week is that yes, the NHL plans to bring this up with the NHLPA in CBA extension talks. Is there a way to tweak the system for something that could work for the postseason? It's too early to tell what that could look like.

You may remember that a couple of years ago, Ken Holland and Jim Nill were among the GMs that floated out an idea in the GM meetings about ‘Hey, your payroll could be whatever after the trade deadline, but on game day in the playoffs, your active roster that night has to be salary-cap compliant.’ That was an idea they floated. I don't know that the league really liked it. I think they found it too simplistic. So, we'll see where this ends up and there's no guarantee by the way, that they find a solution at the end of all this. But at the very least, they have said they will tackle this.

Reda: It is a major can of worms. That's the early edition of Insider Trading. The full version of IT is coming up later on the early edition of SportsCentre.