Seemingly out of nowhere, Tomas Hertl has been traded to the Vegas Golden Knights, taking full advantage of that juicy LTIR cap space. I can guarantee you if say, Nurse was injured pre-deadline and the Oilers placed him on LTIR, then used his 9 million $ to add a bunch of extra players, the NHL would be getting rid of that rule right away. Stone has been placed on LTIR about a month before the deadline, and then brought him back onto the roster at playoff time 3 years in a row now.
We can only hope for the best, that Vegas continues to fall in the standings and one of Calgary, Seattle, St. Louis or Minnesota jumps ahead. Calgary has been playing very well lately, there's a legitimate chance Vegas could miss the playoffs, Calgary and Seattle each have to make up 6 points before the end of the year.