BOSTON — The Boston Bruins have a handful of players that won’t be ready to begin the season, so will that prompt the Bruins to utilize long-term injured reserve?
In a word, yes.
Joakim Nordstrom was placed on IR Tuesday evening, but that points to him returning sooner rather than later. But for Kevan Miller and John Moore, both of whom it’s been clear for a while now that they wouldn’t start on time, there’s a possibility one or both of those players could begin the season on LTIR. General manager Don Sweeney was asked outright during Tuesday’s media day if he planned on placing anyone on LTIR.
“Yes,” Sweeney responded. “The whole group is working hard to find out what our best capture will be. Make no mistake, Miller, Moore and (Anton) Blidh will not start with us, and as I referenced, Nordstrom looks like he may have a little delay as well.”
So what does it mean to put a player on long-term IR?
The big thing to note is that it means a player is expected to be out a minimum of 10 NHL games and 24 days, and as is the case when a player is on injured reserve, they do not count against the 23-man roster. Moore is expected to be out until November, so he seems like a likely candidate to land there. Kevan Miller has resumed skating, though he doesn’t have a return timetable yet.
Furthermore, LTIR allows a team to operate over the salary cap, though players have to be activated once they are cleared to play. In other words, a team can’t just hide a guy on LTIR indefinitely so that they can fly right through the cap limit.
Both Moore and Miller carry cap hits north of $2 million, so utilizing LTIR was a theory floated around in the offseason when the Bruins were trying to sign Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo with limited cap space. They signed the blueliners without exceeding the cap, so such a move did not become necessary. Even if a player is put on LTIR though, their cap hit still exists, so it’s not as if they disappear and their contract never existed, which is why the benefit of LTIR tends to be overstated. In essence, all a team is doing is kicking the proverbial can down the road and delaying the inevitable need to shed cash.
To put it simply, there’s nothing earth-shattering about any Bruins going on LTIR given the state of the roster and salary cap. Still, it won’t be surprising to see Moore, Miller or both end up there over the coming days.
