NHL commissioner Gary Bettman downplayed the league's appetite for implementing a postseason salary cap, saying he doesn't consider teams' usage of long-term injury reserve a "front-burner issue."

"Nobody in that room [of NHL general managers] believes that it's being abused," Bettman said Tuesday as the league's annual spring general managers meetings wrapped up. "I think it's the perception. Nobody was sitting there saying, 'this is a terrible abuse, we have to fix it.' That hasn't been the case at all."

Manipulation of the salary cap has become a buzzy topic around the NHL, and landed on the agenda of this week's meetings. According to a source, the GMs had a discussion about erasing the "LTIR loophole" that allows teams to build non-salary complaint rosters in the regular season by stashing high-budget salaries on long-term injury reserve, but the conversation was ultimately tabled to the next GM meetings, this July at the draft in Montreal.

"There are definitely varying opinions on this one," one GM told ESPN. "But not necessarily a charge for reform. Probably more of a media thing right now."

Any change to the collective bargaining agreement also requires approval from the NHLPA. Bettman said the NHL has engaged in conversations with the players association on the matter, but didn't divulge much more than that.

"I believe, overwhelmingly, the view of the general managers is that this hasn't been a problem for the last 17 years," Bettman said. "This is something that would be nice to adjust to change the perception, but I don't think it's viewed that it's been a problem, because it hasn't."