An NHL roster move can change who counts against a club’s roster limit, who is eligible to play, and how the team’s payroll fits under the salary cap. The key distinctions: the regular-season playing roster can have up to 23 players through the trade deadline; injured reserve (IR) opens a roster spot but does not set a return date; and a player subject to waivers may be claimed by another club before an assignment to the AHL.
Which roster limit are people talking about?
“Roster” can mean different groups. The NHL’s published Hockey Operations Guidelines describe the playing roster: from the start of the regular season through the trade deadline, a club may have no more than 23 players on it and must have at least 20—18 skaters and two goaltenders. Players on IR do not count toward the 23-player limit.
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The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) also uses the term Active Roster. It is not interchangeable with the dressed lineup for a game, which is a smaller group. Nor does the 23-player playing-roster limit mean a club can have only 23 players under contract or in its organization. The NHL guidelines separately describe a Reserve List, which may contain up to 80 players across categories including professional players, signed junior players, unsigned draft choices and defected players.
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| Move or status | Roster effect | Main condition or consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Injured reserve (IR) | Player does not count toward the 23-player limit; the club may replace him on the NHL roster. | At least seven days unable to play; no NHL game for at least seven days after placement. |
| Waivers, then AHL loan | A player subject to waivers may be claimed before his club loans him. | If claimed, he transfers to the claiming club; if unclaimed, he clears and may be loaned subject to the assignment window. |
| Recall from the AHL | Player moves onto the NHL club’s roster. | May be a regular or emergency recall; roster need and post-deadline limits can matter. |
| Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) | May increase the club’s permitted spending limit under specified conditions. | Relief depends on payroll and timing; it is not automatically the injured player’s full cap hit in new space. |
What happens when a player goes on injured reserve?
Under the NHL Hockey Operations Guidelines, a club may place a player on IR when he is injured, disabled or ill and unable to perform, after the club’s initial physical examination for that season. The condition must make him unable to play for at least seven days, and he is ineligible to compete in NHL games for at least seven days after placement. The club’s medical staff makes the injury determination under its medical standards.
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IR is a roster-accounting and game-eligibility status, not a forecast of recovery. It does not mean the injury is season-ending, and it does not require the player to be separated from the team: an IR player may attend meetings and meals, travel and participate in practice. The club may use the roster opening to add a replacement, subject to the other roster and cap rules.
How waivers work before an AHL assignment
Waivers give other NHL clubs an opportunity to claim certain players before their current club loans them to a minor-league affiliate such as its AHL team. Whether a player is exempt depends on age and professional experience. The Carolina Hurricanes’ Transaction Primer explains that principle but does not provide the full exemption table, so a particular player’s status must be checked against the governing rules rather than inferred from this summary.
If another team claims the player
A claim transfers the player to the claiming club. If more than one club submits a claim, waiver priority decides which gets him. The Hurricanes primer’s concise account says priority initially follows the prior season’s standings, beginning with the club with the worst record; starting November 1, it uses current-season records. Edge cases and the procedure for an individual transaction are governed by the applicable league rules and CBA.
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If no team claims the player
The player clears waivers, after which his club may loan him to the AHL. Clearing does not grant an unlimited permission to make the assignment later. The Hurricanes primer describes the ordinary post-clearance window as ending after 10 NHL games or 30 days on the Active Roster since the clearance. It calls this an oversimplification, so treat it as a general explanation, not a substitute for checking the rule governing a specific transaction.
The primer describes different accounting for emergency recalls: the assignment right lasts until the player has played 10 games on emergency recall; days on the roster do not count, and games played on a regular recall do not count toward that emergency-recall limit.
What a recall does—and when it can be an emergency
A recall moves a player from another roster, usually the AHL, to the NHL club. A regular recall and an emergency recall are not interchangeable: emergency status is tied to a shortage caused by injury or illness and has distinct transaction limits and assignment rules.
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According to the Hurricanes primer, an emergency recall may be available when injury or illness leaves a club with fewer than 12 available forwards, six defensemen or two goaltenders. The primer also says an emergency-recalled player may be loaned during the holiday roster freeze, unlike the ordinary case. These are summaries of transaction rules; the current CBA controls the eligibility of a particular move.
For the period after the trade deadline through the end of the season, the primer describes four regular recalls during a 40-day span and says emergency recalls are not numerically capped in the same way. Those figures describe the primer’s account of the applicable rules, not an unrestricted right to make any move: eligibility still depends on the circumstances and governing rules.
How LTIR affects the salary cap
LTIR is a conditional adjustment to the club’s permitted spending limit. It can let a team replace a player expected to miss substantial time while operating above the normal upper limit, but it does not simply turn the player’s full cap hit into an equal amount of spendable room.
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The Hurricanes primer gives the usual threshold as an injury or illness expected to keep a player out for at least 10 games and 24 days, with the player also placed on IR. The amount of permitted spending depends on the club’s payroll and when it enters LTIR. The primer says LTIR room does not accrue in the same way as ordinary unused cap space; actual calculations depend on the CBA’s rules and the club’s payroll at the relevant time.
Because the new CBA takes effect in 2026-27, cap calculations and transaction practices should be checked against the agreement in force for the season in question. NHL.com and Sabres.com’s July 21, 2025 summary identifies 2026-27 as the start of the new agreement and says the prior CBA remains in place through 2025-26.
A narrow exception for a roster emergency
A separate roster emergency exception is not a general way to evade the cap. A June 27, 2025 NHL/NHLPA memorandum describes it for a club with very little payroll room that, after an injury, illness, disability or suspension, falls short of the minimum 18 skaters and two goaltenders. The excerpted terms require the club to have played its previous game below that lineup threshold. They cap the replacement player’s averaged amount at the minimum salary plus $375,000 and specify how salary-cap accounting works during the exception. The full applicable CBA text is needed to assess a real transaction.
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What changed for 2026-27?
The NHL’s July 21, 2025 CBA summary says that from 2026-27, a player assigned to the AHL must appear in a minor-league game before the NHL club recalls him. The change ends the paper transactions described in the summary. It is therefore important to distinguish current-season rules from practices that applied under the prior agreement, which remains in force through 2025-26.
For any proposed move, check six things: the player’s roster status, waiver eligibility, whether the move is regular or emergency, whether the club remains above the playing-roster minimum and within any applicable maximum, how the move affects cap accounting, and which season’s CBA governs it. The NHL Hockey Operations Guidelines establish the published roster and IR rules; the Hurricanes primer is a useful overview of waivers and recalls but flags parts of its explanation as simplified.
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