“Potentially,” Bowman said. “And we have some roster decisions to make, depending on who’s here or not here. But that’s an option. As far as being compliant, we’re not really worried about that, because we can always use the long-term injury if we have to.”
While waiting to put Shaw on long-term injury until the season starts does make sense, the Blackhawks do still have to be mindful of which entry-level players they’re recalling because any player who is recalled using LTIR space has to be counted by their AAV, which includes their bonuses, instead of simply their cap hit. This is why while
Kirby Dach is waiver exempt the Blackhawks won’t use him as a paper transaction to begin the season. He counts as $925,000 if he’s on their initial roster, but if they sent him down to Rockford and recalled him once they put Shaw on LTIR, he would count as $3.425 million. Kurashev and Entwistle don’t have substantial bonuses, so their paper transactions won’t be as impactful.