after the david clarkson trade I was left wondering why would a cap strapped team would acquire a ltir players. After some diggin I think I got it down
So the Capceiling is 81.5m
ltir bonus is additive to the Hard cap not deductive to your own cap, meaning a team that is not spending to the cap gets 0 releif from placing a guy on ltir, but a Team that sits at the cap lets say right on it at 81.5m and a 10m player gets hurt they now have a 91.5m Hard cap ( until player is activated). what it changes is this. exemple 1)
say toronto had 2m in space with marner unsigned and they wanted to sign him. they would have to put horton right away on ltir so you take horton cap hit of 5.3m you substract the 2m in space they already had and you end up with a real 3.3m in space or if you prefer you can now spend up to 81.5 +3.3 = 84.8m .
exemple 2)
say toronto had exactly 5.25 in cap space before the clarkson trade ( lets ignore sparks) Now they sit at right on the 81.5m limit they can now put them both on LTIR and spend up to 81.5+10.55 = 92.05m
so the big picture here is you only get bonus cap space of the actual amount your over the cap reguardless of the player cap hit. in theorie a team that is not against the cap say ottawa, and their full roster goes on ltir at the same time you actually get no bonus