NHL salary cap experts find Panthers Cup Final lineup is illegal under new rules

The Florida Panthers stashed Matthew Tkachuk on LTIR from the midpoint of the season to Game 1 of the playoffs, which allowed the team to ice a playoff lineup well over the current cap of $88M.

According to a new report from salary cap experts at PuckPedia, the Florida Panthers iced a Game 6 lineup that was $5M over the salary cap. Under the new NHL rules, they would've had to scratch at least $5M in players from their lineup every game.

It's a positive sign that the NHL is finally taking action to fix teams stashing players on LTIR and icing playoff super-teams.

Given the massive discrepancy in salary during the Cup Final, it's also just rich that the team that was investigated for their cap usage was the Edmonton Oilers.

However, it's also glaring that the Edmonton Oilers played a Game 6 lineup that was $7.4M under the salary cap. That's the significant loss of Zach Hyman, but still just under $2M of leftover salary to spare.

The Oilers cast off plenty of their ineffective contracts this offseason so far, but they'll need to continue to be vigilant managing their cap. Past next year's trade deadline, the Oilers can't have players like Skinner or Arvidsson in the lineup next year - it's still just wasted resources that could make the team better elsewhere.