With Steven Stamkos out until at least mid-March and perhaps longer, the Tampa Bay Lightning have placed him on long-term injured reserve (LTIR). According to CapFriendly.com, the Lightning made a paper transaction on Sunday to add Syracuse Crunch defenseman Ben Thomas to the roster prior to placing Stamkos on LTIR.
(1/2) #Lightning filed a 1 day paper transaction on Sun recalling Ben Thomas from Syracuse, bringing Tampa to within $40K of the cap ceiling
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) November 22, 2016
(2/2) #Lightning then placed Steven Stamkos on Long Term IR, giving Tampa almost max value on his cap hit with $8,460,613 in cap relief.