Report: Leafs may be in trouble with NHL over Chris Tanev contract

According to a report from Jim Parsons of The Hockey News and The Hockey Writers, the Toronto Maple Leafs may be in some hot water with the NHL concerning the Chris Tanev contract that was signed earlier this offseason.

The issue is with the use of Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) as a way to effectively bury bad contracts near the end of the deal's term.

Technically, the Leafs haven't done anything wrong just yet. But Parsons and Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic report that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is scrutinizing the LTIR loophole that currently exists and that Tanev is a prime target to be made an example of should the Leafs go down the LTIR road with him before his deal expires. The Leafs signed Tanev to a six year deal that will take him to 40 years old. Given his injury history, do we really expect Tanev to complete this entire deal? What's more likely is that Tanev plays a season, or two... maybe even three, but then retires near the end of the deal while receiving his full salary on LTIR. This in effect is just a way for teams to overpay players both in term and in dollars without having to pay any salary cap penalty.

Look for this loophole to get closed up and for the Leafs to be on the full hook for Tanev's six year, $27 million deal. 

From Duhatschek:

If the league genuinely wanted to do that [change the rules], they would find ways of plugging the loopholes in the system. This, by the way, is inherently just like the NHL. As soon as a rule is in place, teams try to find creative ways of circumventing it. Ever since the cap system was introduced, teams have found complicated, but legal ways to get around the theoretical cap ceiling.

- Eric Duhatschek

There's no telling if Tanev will play out the full length of his deal, but if the NHL is intent on closing up this loophole then it may not even matter to the Leafs. Either way they'll be stuck paying his entire $4.5 million salary whether he's in the lineup or not.