CapFriendly outlines how the Lightning can land Eichel with a loophole used by Toronto last season
The Tampa Bay Lightning are catching a lot of flak from other team's fans since placing Nikita Kucherov on long-term injured reserve Tuesday following what appeared to be a groin injury. Kucherov did not play in the regular season at all in 2020-21, which allowed the Lightning to hold on to other players they would have had to get rid of to fit under the cap until the playoffs, when it's no longer in effect. The Lightning managed to dump some cap space this offseason and, with Kucherov now back on LTIR, CapFriendly has outlined how the defending Stanley Cup champions can grab one of the most coveted pieces available on the market right now.
With Kucherov out for the foreseeable future, the Bolts currently have $9.6 million in cap space.
"What Tampa could do with that space is acquire a player who is currently injured and also [long-term injured] eligible, and who won't be back for the regular season," said CapFriendly.
"Tampa could fit such a player under the cap, place them on LTI, and then activate them in the post season when there is no cap."
This is the perfect recipe for grabbing Jack Eichel. Eichel cannot play until he has surgery on his neck, and will need time to recover once the procedure is done. Getting Eichel and keeping him on LTIR until the playoffs would make a strong team even that much stronger. By the way, CapFriendly states this has been done before.
"The Leafs did something similar last season when they acquired Riley Nash from the Blue Jackets. Toronto had the space to fit him under their cap, they then placed him on LTI after he was acquired, and then activated him for the start of the playoffs once he was cleared to play," said CapFriendly.
And that is the key. The cap space needs to be there first before the player can be acquired and placed on LTIR. With Kucherov out, the Lightning need $400,000, something that can be easily obtained by sending a player to the minors until the process is completed, or by sending some salary back to Buffalo in the trade. If Eichel could return for the playoffs, Tampa Bay can worry about getting under the cap for next season over the summer. It's definitely an interesting scenario and you have to wonder if Bolts GM Julien BriseBois isn't smacking his lips at this possibility.
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||