What will be discussed at GM meetings?

Two of the most hot-button issues will be at the forefront of the NHL general manager meetings in Toronto on Tuesday.

On the “Saturday Headlines” segment of Hockey Night of Canada, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that replay reviews and playoff rosters will be two of the main topics discussed as the NHL GMs gather.

When it comes to replay reviews, Friedman reports that the GMs will take particular interest in the length of the stoppages.

“Tonight, there was a review of whether the puck hit the net before a goal in Philadelphia and Florida, and this one took five minutes and 13 seconds,” Friedman said. “I understand that one of the concerns here is the amount of time it takes. How long it takes, how much time teams are given before they can challenge.”

Along with reviews, Friedman reports that one issue that many GMs are still concerned with is teams taking advantage of the salary cap’s disappearance during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“One of the topics I still think is a big deal amongst some GMs is can they fix the playoff roster issue,” Friedman said. “When the cap goes away, and you can stack your roster, is there something that can be done, or needs to be done to guard against that.”

In September, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that the majority of the NHL’s general managers “would like us to continue to consider making some kind of adjustment that would alleviate some of the concerns around that.”

LTIR is a mechanism that allows teams to exceed the salary cap when a player has an injury that requires them to miss at least 10 games and 24 days during the regular season. However, teams cannot activate a player from LTIR without having cap space.

At issue is how LTIR pertains to the playoffs. Since the salary cap does not cover playoff rosters, there have been several instances where a player returned from injury in time for Game 1 of the first round while his team made several other additions to the roster during his absence.