Why dont all teams do like Vegas and Tampa

Yeah rangers fan have Panarin miss the entire season because of hip surgery ohh that still doesn't work because the season the season in 22 was only 4 months not 6.5 but even if you could extend it your not making the playoffs without him

Because very few teams can make the playoffs while missing some of their best players for months on end? Why didn't NJ LITR Hughes this year and activate him for the playoffs? Why didn't Detroit just LTIR Larkin until the playoffs? Thompson was injured for a lot of the year, why didn't Buffalo just hold him out so they were fresh for the first round?

I have no love for Tampa or Vegas, but I really don't understand what's so hard for so many people to grasp. You're only getting a significant advantage as a team if your higher-dollar (read: "better") players are sitting out for significant stretches of the regular season and you spend significant assets to backfill those players' salaries with other (also good) players, usually as rentals.

So sure, any team that's good enough to walk into the playoffs now while missing huge pieces of the roster, while also mortgaging their long-term future to replace those players short-term, can easily replicate what Tampa and Vegas are doing. It's just such an obvious loophole!

And to further the discussion: what's the solution if it's actually that much of a problem?

1. LTIR players aren't eligible for the first round? Ok, so now teams get a boost for the 2nd round if they're good enough to get through the 1st? It's kicking the can down the road.
2. LTIR players aren't eligible for the playoffs? I'm sure the NHL will love seeing healthy star players sidelined during their highest-viewership games. The owners will love that.
3. Games Played requirements to be eligible for the playoffs? See #2, but with the added player-safety risk of rushing actually injured players back.
4. LTIR slots? (As in, each team only gets one or two LTIR players back for the playoffs). Most teams only use one anyway, so it's just preventing teams from really abusing the system.
5. Playoff Cap? Again, I think this leads to player safety issues of people playing injured, while adding complex roster gymnastics, in a way that doesn't feasibly solve the issue.

Players get hurt, and players come back. If the NHL has an independent medical team auditing injuries, the timelines make sense, and the owners don't have a huge issue with it...I just don't think we'll see a a change anytime soon.

I mean if Chytil plays, then the Rangers will be doing it too haha

the solution is simple, you can allow the team to pass the cap in the playoffs do to a player missing the season/end of year do to LTIR, but in playoff the official game day lineup CANNOT go past the cap, thus all the player dressing cannot exceed the current salary cap of the day, thus all players on the ice total cap must not pass 83.5M (current day cap), emergency call ups exempt.