Colorado Avalanche could be planning to bend rules of salary cap with a significant player

With the team already almost $5M over the NHL salary cap, the timing of Landeskog's potential return to the lineup is extremely suspect. In the playoffs, the salary cap becomes null and void, and seemingly would be the only time that the Avalanche would have the possibility of Landeskog returning.

The situation is extremely reminiscent of the Tampa Bay Lightning's handling of Nikita Kucherov's injury in the 2020-21 season, wherein Kucherov missed the entire year with the team right at the salary cap, and was able to return for game one of the playoffs, essentially bringing the Lightning $18M over the salary cap at the time.

The Avalanche are obviously worse off without the addition of their captain through the regular season, but are a strong enough team to qualify for the playoffs without him. Once the playoffs are to begin, and if the team can add a healthy Landeskog back to the lineup, the Avalanche could once again be Stanley Cup favourites. Throughout the year, fans and media alike will keep tabs as to when the team plans to bring Landeskog back into the mix.