Yesterday, late in the afternoon and with Ron Hainsey and Roman Polak both sick, the Leafs called up Justin Holl on an emergency basis. This is not a loophole, it’s not pushing the envelope on the rules, it’s a feature of the CBA designed to make sure teams always play with a full roster of players.
The main feature of emergency recall is that the player called up does not have to clear waivers when he returns to the AHL, regardless of his waiver status at the time, as long as he plays less than 10 NHL games.