The Penguins are placing Bryan Rust and Zach Trotman on long-term injured reserve.
Trotman has already been placed on long-term injured reserve. Rust has not yet gone on long-term injured reserve, but will be placed on long-term injured reserve once the Penguins' roster is submitted.
Trotman is out "longer-term" after undergoing sports hernia surgery during training camp. Rust was hit in the hand while blocking a shot in Saturday's preseason finale.
Both Trotman and Rust are expected to miss at least 10 NHL games and 24 days by going on long-term injured reserve.
While teams typically accrue any daily unused cap space to bank and use later in the season, placing a player on long-term injured reserve prevents the Penguins from banking any unused space for later. However, the moves grant the Penguins two additional roster spots and provides cap relief.
It would be inaccurate to say their contracts no longer count towards the Penguins' salary cap. Instead, the Penguins will be given a new, temporary salary cap while they have players on long-term injured reserve. The new salary cap is the current league-wide salary cap, plus the player’s salary, minus current available cap space.
We'll have a better idea of the amount of cap relief the Penguins get once we know if any procedural paper transactions are made beforehand that would change the team's available cap space. The closer the Penguins can get to the salary cap's upper limit, the more relief they will have once Rust officially goes on long-term injured reserve.
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