Finally, the Toronto Maple Leafs made news this week with their announcement goalie Matt Murray would be placed on long-term injured reserve and be out of the lineup until further notice. The news came as the Leafs had a second buyout window open after goalie Ilya Samsonov's arbitration ruling, but only players ruled to be healthy can be bought out. Some fans were claiming the Leafs were effectively circumventing the salary cap, inferring Toronto management somehow faked an injury to the veteran goalie in an attempt to get cap-compliant. The problem with that theory is the NHL does take LTIR cases extremely seriously – if there were any evidence a team was stashing an unwanted player on LTIR, the league would come down incredibly hard on it, levelling sanctions and penalties to ensure teams never even thought about trying to put one past it.
If the Leafs attempted to put Matt Murray on LTIR without actually being injured, not only would the league be obligated to look into it, but if they found it to be true, the Leafs would be used as an example for every other team around the league.
Not only do I think that this would destroy the Leafs, it would be incredibly irresponsible of new general manager Brad Treliving to try and pull a fast and on the league.
Source: The Hockey News