LTIR in offseason

Yes, teams can utilize LTIR in the offseason, with the most recent example being when Washington placed Nicklas Backstrom on LTIR in the summer of 2022.  However, placing a player on LTIR in the off-season sets the team’s LTIR pool for as long as they have at least one player on LTIR, and it can be very difficult to optimize/maximize the LTIR pool in the summer. In fact, Washington was $2 million short of the maximum potential LTIR this year because they used LTIR in the summer and were not able to optimize it.  For more on setting the LTIR pool, check this out: https://puckpedia.com/LTIR22