At the end of the regular season, there was almost one half of the league using the LTIR to circumvent the salary cap ceiling. It's there for a reason. People always mention TB this year but usually dont mention the other teams doing it. Cheers for mentioning Toronto but their number was low compared to others. It's funny because they acquired Nash while on LTIR JUST to benefit their cap situation. Late season injuries and recalling Andersen is what moved their number down the list.
In order of how much over the cap the teams were and how much they were over at the end of the regular season:
TBL - $17.3M
STL - $8.64M
NYI - $6.92M
VAN - $4.51M
CHI - $4.43M
ANA - $4.18M
EDM - $4.1M
WSH - $3.99M
DAL - $3.19M
WPG - $2.87M
TOR - $2.78
COL - $1.46M
VEG - $1.36M
PIT - $1.275M
MTL - $1.14M
Personally, I dont have an issue with it. Tampa Bay had Kucherov on LTIR all season, which meant he wasn't playing for them all season. When you are missing one of the best players in the league ALL SEASON long, that can't be easy. Tampa just happens to be blessed with a deep team and since one of their highest paid players had a serious injury, they were able to add other pieces to help them. That's the whole purpose of LTIR.
Is it shady? I don't think so. Toronto has been using loopholes for cap circumvention for ages. Lou was a genius at it. Did people complain about them doing it? Of course. Who cares if TB used it to their advantage. It's not like Kucherov wasn't legitimately injured. Good luck proving when he was healthy enough to return.