The Vegas Golden Knights have received some heat for their use of the “Kucherov” strategy, namely putting Mark Stone on LTIR to allow Jack Eichel to finally play for his new team. However, on the latest episode of Zone Time, the tactic is largely supported and Justin Cuthbert says that rather than cheating, Vegas are just working harder than any other NHL team to remain competitive.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I'm talking of, obviously, about the Vegas Golden Knights, and their using LTIR to put Mark Stone and his salary and his hurt back away, at least until the end of the regular season.

I'll say this, though, I haven't seen too many people complain this time, like they did with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Nikita Kucherov being on LTIR for all of this season. I just think it's so stupid when people actually do that or say, oh, Tampa cheated and all that. So I hope that like no one tries to dogpile on Vegas for it.

I'm just curious about you guys, though. Justin, what do you think about teams who use LTIR to their advantage when it comes to just putting a big salary that's injured obviously away and then being able to accommodate other pieces, like a Jack Eichel?

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I have absolutely no problem with it. I mean, there's so many restraints on these teams and these managers to put together good teams, and you're going to take away that one option they have, which is to fill holes when there is an injury. And I get, there are maybe some injuries that are being manufactured or surgeries that are being timed in a certain way. But guess what? That's one of the few tools they have at their disposal.

If I'm a fan of the Vegas Golden Knights, I am so happy that my team is so desperate to win hockey games and to try and win a Stanley Cup. I mean, what team in the NHL is trying as hard as the Vegas Golden Knights to be competitive? Nobody. No team is going to the extent that they are going to try and make their team great. And you know, they're a team that has a bunch of personnel, people from the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Manitoba area. And guess what? Mark Stone is from that area. And maybe they can trust him with, you know, hey, let's sit down for a couple months.

I don't want to get too conspiracy theorist here.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Ah, OK.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: But clearly, he might be dealing with an issue. But clearly, he was healthy enough to play at the All-Star Game and be a part of that weekend. So this isn't something that's debilitating. But he's on the shelf now, because he can be on the shelf, which gets Jack Eichel back in the lineup. And guess what? If something else happens, if someone else goes down, Robin Lehner's got a torn labrum, maybe someone else comes in, but maybe they can get Mark Stone back in at a time before the playoffs start because someone else is going on LTIR.

Really, the message here is deal with the problem when it comes up. Acquire the player and deal with the problem when it comes up. The solution right now is to put Mark Stone on LTIR. And maybe the solution changes in a few weeks. But I wish every fan had their team want to win as bad as Vegas wants to win

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's a really good point. And considering Vegas since they've been in the league, they've been a playoff team since literally day one, essentially. They went-- they made all these moves in the offseason to build a team that can at least be competitive. And they've been more or less rewarded for it. They just need a Stanley Cup.

Avry, what about you?

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: I am all for it. There isn't, there's no rule saying you cannot do this. Again, it's on the NHL. If people don't like it, then it's on NHL to fix this loophole. But as long as this rule is upo-- as long as this rule exists, go ahead and do it. Do what you got to do to get your championship. I'm all for it.

More teams should find a way to manipulate the system. They really should. If your GM isn't doing that, if your team is not doing that, then come on, you don't want it bad enough. You've got to find every way to get around certain rules to add players, to help your salary out. Because there are some teams in the league who don't do it, who I think are just, aren't creative. Like they really aren't. You've got to find a way to figure it out.

And you're right, Julian, since day one, the Golden Knights have said, we're going to find a way to win. We're not going to be the, oh, what was this expansion team that gets their heads kicked in for five years. I love Vegas being aggressive out of the gate. And if they win the Cup this year, good for them. I'll love that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Was there a GM you wanted to mention that wasn't creative or--

OMAR: That was a sub tweet for sure.

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: What? No. Understanding-- Understanding there's a lot of uncreative GMs [INAUDIBLE] a lot of GMs who are not creative. That's all I'm saying. I'll leave it at that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: OK, I"m just checking. I just had to ask that question. Go ahead, Omar.

OMAR: Yeah, I mean, well, OK, let's just call a spade a spade. As a Leafs fan, I cannot critique a team for using LTIR for their advantage. Because it benefited the Leafs a lot, especially when it came to rebuild--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Shout out, Brandon Pridham.

OMAR: Yeah, Brandon Pridham, our lord and savior.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: But not to the extent, right? Like the Leafs haven't done it to the extent that maybe they should. I mean, Riley Nash, that was-- they dipped their toes in the water. But Riley Nash, that's not stashing away Mark Stone or Jack Eichel. That's just like fourth line insurance.

I wish the Leafs would do it more. Because it looks like they come across it honestly, when really, they're the team that gets, when they bring referees to training camp and they get shit on by other teams, like the Leafs are by the book as much as possible. They have more grounds, I think, to try and do the things Vegas was doing.

OMAR: Yeah, absolutely. And like Justin and Avry, there are two words that came to mind based off of what you've said. One is desperation into creativity, right. But not desperation in the sense of just like doing, like throwing anything at the wall to try to improve the team. You have teams, it seemed like the Vegas Golden Knights, who, again, every year, they're in on everyone. Any time there's a free agent, anytime there's a huge trade acquisition, they're in on them, right. They have shown the organization, the fans that they're willing to do whatever it takes to win.

And at the same time, they're also displaying the creativity to win. Everyone was mad at Tampa last year. Well, I'm sorry, it worked. And you can-- and I think when we were in the salary, cap especially in today's day and age, where the cap isn't moving and it's really constrained teams, you have to think of ways to go about your business. So like criticizing a team for literally making use of something that's in the CBA to help them improve for the playoffs, yeah, to Avry's point, every team should be doing that. Every team should be finding every single inch, letter, clause, bullet point, whatever they can use from the CBA to put themselves in a better position, they should be using that.

And if you're not using that, well, then I think you have to take a look at yourself and ask yourself, well, why is our team in the position that we're in? Maybe you're not trying hard enough. Maybe you're not going outside of the box. And I think what we see teams like Vegas, teams like Tampa Bay, they are those out of the box thinking, thinking processes and it's working. So yeah, definitely, by all means. Yeah, hopefully, you know what, Kyle Dubas, if you want to do something like that, that'd be cool, that'd be sweet.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm not going to let the whole Brandon Pridham lord and savior comment slide.

OMAR: Yes, of course. Every trade deadline, every trade deadline Brandon Pridham goes [INAUDIBLE] three. Like literally, he's just in his-- Brandon Pridham is in his room just like charging, or charging up, just like charging his energy. And then once the trade deadline comes, he just goes full on, aura, gold hair, lightening, power strength.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Is what led to the Nick Foligno trade last year?

OMAR: Listen, we're not going to talk about that, OK? Listen, OK. That was an unfortunate--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JULIAN MCKENZIE: --means giving up a first, a second, and a--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Good Lord.

OMAR: Unfortunate set of circumstances, OK? No one knew--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: One that needs more energy for the spirit bomb. That's not good.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: --and firing shots off like a Omar.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: To Omar's defense, to Omar's defense, Pridham does flex every trade deadline. Like Robin Lehner went through Toronto to get to Vegas and it helped the Maple Leafs somehow. Like they do small things like that. They don't do the blatant things. And I don't know if that's Pridham's call. That's Dubas' call.

OMAR: That's true. One day, we'll see.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: And Foligno. Foligno was Dubas' call.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Foligno was very much Dubas' call. And he was fun in the documentary. But I mean, aside from the fight in the first round of the playoffs.

OMAR: We don't talk about the documentary.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Really? We don't talk about that? I feel like we've-- we did a whole, we did part of an episode on that. I think we've talked about the doc.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

OMAR: I would like to move on from the documentary, because I don't want to get mad at Travis Dermott, so--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: OK, fine.