As I understand, teams are allowed to exceed the cap based on player bonuses, which just cuts into the next year's cap. A lot of teams plan to do this, and this is the case where the cap is expected to go up next year.

That's different than using LTIR to game the post-season.

I'm not saying what VGK does (every year) is cheating, but it is brazenly gaming the system and very suspect when it is every year and seems like it's always Mark Stone. It's flaunting the intent of LTIR.