Chris Kelly is out of commission for a long long time. But could the Bruins use his injury to help them clear enough cap space to make a major addition at the trade deadline?

What is Long Term Injured Reserve (LTIR)? LTIR allows a team to regain some cap space to replace injured players, but in most cases is not the full cap hit of the player being placed on it. A team can make paper moves to maximize this benefit however, as a team needs to get as close to the cap as possible WITH the player on the roster, or as close the cap WITHOUT the players cap hit counting against it, all while fitting within the maximum roster of 23 players.

Roster Move Player Cap Hit Cap hits Cap Space Roster number Waivers? Current cap situation x $69,280,666 $2,119,334 23 x Chris Kelly on IR x $69,280,666 $2,119,334 22 x Call up Talbot $900,000 $70,180,666 $1,219,334 23 Yes, cleared 10/6 Send down Colin Miller $602,500 $69,578,166 $1,821,834 22 No Call up Zane McIntyre $925,000 $70,503,166 $896,834 23 No Send down Joonas Kemppainen $792,500 $69,710,666 $1,689,334 22 No Call up Brian Ferlin $875,000 $70,585,666 $814,334 23 No Send down Khokhlachev $786,666 $69,799,000 $1,601,000 22 No Call up Malcolm Subban $863,333 $70,662,333 $737,667 23 No LTIR KELLY $3,000,000 $70,662,333 $3,481,667 23 x

The next step would be to revert the changes of these players, sans the recall of Max Talbot, who was recently called up. This would decrease the Bruins actual cap hit by a total of 2.1 million, giving them a total cap hit of $67,180,666 - and a total cap space after the LTIR of $6,481,667.