Norris Not Ready to Play, Using LTIR as an Alternative to Get Pinto Under Contract
Ahead of their final preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens, head coach D.J. Smith announced that Josh Norris would not play.
The centre has been sidelined with a shoulder injury that forced him to miss 74 games last season and necessitated surgery. It has been a long and slow recovery for Norris, but the organization outlined their plan to have Norris play in two preseason games in an effort to get him ready for the regular season.
That obviously will not happen.
The organization had recently gone out of its way to play up the psychological element of the recovery process. For anyone who has played sports and experienced a significant injury, there are definitely mental hurdles involved in building yourself up to the point where you are close to 100 percent and letting it all fly. There is a wall that you have to break through to create the confidence that you have fully recovered and the body is responding the way you want it to.
This is why it is interesting to hear that it is the Senators’ training staff and doctors who are the ones saying he is not ready to play — which would lead everyone to assume that it is more a physical matter and Norris is not meeting some important physical benchmarks to get clearance.
"The training staff and doctors are telling me that he’s not going to play,” explained Smith this morning to reporters. “You'd never think that possibly we'd start the year without him and it certainly looks that way."
The frustrations for the player and the organization are palpable. Everyone wants to see Norris on the ice because he is such an important piece of the lineup. The team’s postseason chances hinge largely on a healthy and productive Norris.
The short-term implications of a Norris injury are frustrating and painful, but the organization needs to do what is best for his long-term health and the bigger picture. If being cautious now allows him to return to the ice and stay there, then that is the priority for the Senators.
What remains to be seen is how long Norris will stay on the shelf or who the Senators will use to fill his spot in the lineup.
If it is a day-by-day thing,
Ridly Greig has enjoyed a superb preseason, but asking him to be the team’s second-line centre is a difficult one. He has the two-way aptitude and hockey IQ to become a good player in time, but giving that role and responsibility to a rookie with 20 games of NHL experience under his belt is not ideal.
The best alternative would be for the Senators to sign Shane Pinto and bring him into the fold. CapFriendly presently lists the Senators as having $1.7 million in cap space, but that only lists 11 forwards and six defencemen— one of those forwards being Josh Norris. Adding two forwards to round out the roster will eat up much of those cap savings. To fit a Pinto extension in, the Senators will need to clear additional salary or they could place Josh Norris on the long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
If the Senators place Norris on the LTIR, it means that he will be obligated to sit out 10 games and 24 calendar days. Looking at the Senators’ schedule, 24 days would bring us to November 4th. Unfortunately, the Senators would not play 10 games until their game on November 4th against the Tampa Bay Lightning had concluded, so the earliest Norris could return would be for the November 8th game against Toronto.
By placing Norris on LTIR, the Senators would be allowed to exceed the cap by an amount referred to as the ‘LTIR pool.’
According to the league’s CBA, if the Senators are under the salary cap ceiling prior to placing Norris on the LTIR, then their LTIR pool available to Ottawa is calculated by taking Norris’ cap hit ($7.95 million) and subtracting the team cap space available at the time. So, if Ottawa was $150,000 under the cap ceiling before putting Norris on LTIR, the Senators’ LTIR pool would be $7.8 million. The fact that Ottawa is so close to the cap ceiling actually works out really well here. They want to be as close to the cap ceiling as they can to ensure that their LTIR pool is larger.
With these savings, the Senators can afford to sign Pinto to an extension without having to deal anyone off the parent roster.
If the Senators signed Pinto immediately and put the team over the cap ceiling when they submit their opening night roster, their LTIR pool would be the amount they exceed the cap. The Senators would start the season with no cap space until more roster moves are made.
Using the LTIR pool is not without consequence, however, as Puckpedia outlines:
LTIR teams do not accrue cap space during the year. If a team has $1 million of space available in their LTIR pool on Day 10 of the season, assuming no other roster moves, they will still have only $1M of space available at the trade deadline. For non-LTIR teams, $1 million of projected cap space on Day 10 of the season would allow them to add a player with a $4.5 million cap hit at the trade deadline.
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A team using LTIR all-season would finish the year with a final cap hit greater than the salary cap. Consequently, any performance bonuses earned by players on that team during the season are carried over and added to that team’s cap hit for the following season.
In other words, the savings will help the team now, but the savings at the deadline will be less. It may not seem like a big deal now given the situation and the importance of getting Pinto into the fold immediately, but having more cap savings at the deadline to add an important piece could have important ramifications if the Senators are in the playoff mix.
The Senators might not be in that mix if another bad start sinks their chances. With the exception of a tough opening night draw against the Hurricanes, the rest of the Senators’ October schedule is very soft. The opportunity to build a points cushion and build a bigger margin of error for the team later on when the schedule becomes more difficult is huge.
Other News and Notes:
Mads Sogaard will start tonight’s game against Montreal. It’s no surprise given how sharp Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg have been. The Senators will not risk injury to either player, which also serves as another example of how unnecessary the length of the NHL’s preseason is.
The Senators also recalled Dillon Heatherington, Jacob Larsson, Nikolas Matinpalo, Tarun Fizer, Zack Ostapchuk and Egor Sokolov for tonight’s game.
After being deemed healthy, prospect Tyler Boucher was sent to Belleville’s camp where he is expected to play in one of the team’s preseason games this weekend.
Bruce Garrioch wrote that Rourke Chartier was expected to crack the Senators’ opening night roster. It would make sense if Pinto remains unsigned or signs and needs time to get up to speed, but Chartier’s a short-term option who obviously made an impression on the coaching staff.