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Joined: Mar. 2018
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One thing to note, if Dermott and Hyman are placed on LTIR at the start of the season, it's a different equation than Horton's LTIR. Since Horton remains on LTIR the entire season, his cap hit virtually doesn't affect Toronto. But with Dermott and Hyman, they get placed on what's known as season opening LTIR. On SOLTIR the team gets the cap relief only from the start of the season until the player returns. Once the player returns, only the remaining portion of the season counts towards the cap. But when the cap resets at the end of the season and teams have to be cap compliant, they team gets the full cap hit of the player. If they're over the upper limit they have to pay overages into next season's cap.
Example (don't quote me on exact numbers):
1: Hyman placed on on SOLTIR as he'll be out until Decemberish
2: Leafs receive cap relief of Hyman's contract ($2.25M) until he returns
3: Hyman returns after missing 41 games (just so my math is easier)
4: When Hyman returns, only $1.125M on his contract counts towards the cap while the season is under play as that's roughly what's remaining on his deal
5: When the cap resets at the end of the season, Toronto absorbs Hyman's full $2.25M cap hit on top of whatever their team cap hit is
6: If Hyman's full cap hit pushes Toronto over the upper limit of the cap by, say for example, $1M then Toronto has to pay an cap overage on the cap for the 2020-2021 season, giving them $1M less to spend next season.
For this reason, I wouldn't be shocked if Dubas and company found a way to only have Horton on LTIR and have Dermott and Hyman count towards the cap fully until they return. It's just better for the long term situation of the franchise