According to Chris Johnston of Sportsnet, the Toronto Maple Leafs will indeed be allowed to place Joffrey Lupul on long-term injured reserve, after the veteran forward failed a second physical administered by the league. Like Marian Hossa in Chicago, this ruling will provide Toronto with some cap relief, though the two situations are very different.
Lupul hasn’t played with the team in several years, and caused a media uproar earlier this summer when he posted some comments seeming to call out the Maple Leafs for cheating the system. He later deleted them and apologized, explaining that it was just frustrating for him sitting on the sidelines. The Lupul saga has many reports of the team not wanting him around anyway, and that they were willing to eat his contract to keep him off the team.
Interestingly, CapFriendly just this morning released a new full explanation of the ways you can use LTIR but if you aren’t interested in the minutia of the rule just know that the Maple Leafs are at little risk of going over the cap this season thanks to Lupul and fellow injured forward Nathan Horton. They still could carry another bonus overage into next season thanks to the outstanding totals of their entry-level players, but that’s less of a concern for the time being.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Now, can we finally put this to rest? So many people stated that Toronto cheated by having their doctors manipulate reports to have Lupul put on long term injured reserve. It is highly doubtful that any team could get away with something like this for very long without getting caught. With that said, I think that any player should get an independent review for a second opinion before being placed on long term injured reserve.
Yes thank you! I stood by that all along, and had many people calling it a huge conspiracy that the big bad Maple Leafs flexed their muscle and flat out lied about his health. It’s also highly doubtful that any doctor would ruin their reputation and career by falsifying a report.
I read every one of your posts CJ, & you never waivered even once. No matter what other people said, you never changed what you believed. Good job bro, & it is always good to read what a real & educated hockey fan has to say. Outstanding Brother!
Everyone else seems to be awfully quiet. Funny how that happens.
It was just a lack of knowledge about hockey that so many people said: cheating, illegal. If that was true, the rest of hockey would have caught on & the teams involved would have paid a heavy price. Will this finally go away? I doubt it but it will still be fun to talk about.