The Cole for Bozak trade seems fair.

No way are the pens giving all that up for an expensive 3rd C. Not unless the leafs retain 50% of Bozak's salary.

I'm sorry you just don't get it. Obviously Horton is a lifetime LTIR, so he will not be counted against the cap. And Lupul who again failed his medical in June is 99% on LTIR. What is so hard to understand that teams are not punished cap wise for having players on LTIR? Or is it just the Leafs?
And that Horton trade. All these years later, you don't see to see the basis of the Clarkson/Horton traded. Horton is LTIR and his contract is uninsured, so the Leafs are out of pocket for the next three years 15.75m. No team, no team is going to trade for Horton when it costs then 15.75m

Doesn't LTIR count only in the off season? not sure how that pans out

a team that needs to make the salary cap floor will look for LTIR players to fill out their roster, doesn't look like there are any teams that meet those requirements as of today

NO. LTIR is used in season. Floor teams like AAV/Cash discrepancies (Marleau year 3 will be cap 6.25 but only 1.25 cash after July 1 b/c there is a 5 mil signing bonus on that day so he will likely be traded that summer) and Insured injuries (where the insurance company is paying but the team can use that cap hit to get to the floor, obviously if they used LTIR it wouldn't count against the cap so they wouldn't do that).