Below Market Value
Joined: Nov. 2015
Posts: 1,426
Likes: 1,324
Remember, LTIR is only used when a team needs to exceed the cap; it's essentially just a cap "circumvention" tool (although it's not really circumvention since it's very legal and very cool, but idk how else to describe it). Otherwise a team will just leave the player on IR. So we won't see any teams use it unless they are right up against the cap, i.e. Vegas, Toronto, etc. Since teams can exceed the cap by 10% in the offseason, we likely won't see any use of it right now unless you're like Vegas and you're bursting at the seams.
Chicago traded Hossa simply because it's much easier to not have to deal with the LTIR mess; Chicago in all likelihood wanted to keep competing so they wanted to get out from underneath the cap hit so they could make moves freely and without having to worry about the implications of LTIR. And they must have felt like giving up assets was worth it.
For Horton, like I mentioned above, he will only go on LTIR whenever the Leafs need to exceed the cap. If they end up under the cap after all of their offseason moves are complete (unlikely), Horton will not be placed on LTIR, but simply IR so his cap will still count, but he won't take up a roster spot. Right now the Leafs are below the cap, so Horton is not on LTIR.