REPORT: Avalanche Could Break A Massive NHL Rule Next Year

Last year Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog missed the entirety of the season due to a debilitating knee injury. The injury was so bad that Landeskog will be missing this upcoming season as well but the Avalanche have their hopes up for an April return.

While this could be a coincidence, it may not be and it could be the Avalanche stashing Landeskog away on LTIR to build a better team just to have Landeskog return at the perfect time.

In the past couple of seasons, we have seen multiple teams win a Cup after keeping star players on the LTIR just to have them come back come playoff time.

Nikita Kucherov was injured for a good part of the season and was stashed away on LTIR but came back just in time for the playoffs. With Kucherov being on LTIR, it meant his salary did not count against the cap allowing Tampa to make bigger splashes.

Colorado is currently $5M over the salary cap, and the timing of the captain's return could be suspect.

While Landeskog could certainly have that April return normally, any other time would be more believable that right when the playoffs begin.

As seen on Blade of Steel - Colorado Avalanche could be planning to bend rules of salary cap with a significant player