The Tampa Bay Lightning announced that winger Ryan Callahan’s career is over. He has a degenerative back disease that has him putting up the skates for good. The plan going forward is to place him on long-term injured reserve. This seems like good news for the Tampa Bay Lightning, but it’s not the way it seems.
LTIR is not found money to spend in the offseason. It’s basically permission to spend past the cap to get a player of equal or lesser value. This may be random, but this San Jose Sharks blog from SB Nation does a really good job breaking it down.