The CBA labels insurance proceeds as a “refund from the player,” which qualifies the amount as a cap credit for the club for the following season. In the simplest terms, if a player who eats up a significant portion of a club’s salary cap misses significant time with injury or illness, a club doesn’t have to take it as a total loss, but can recover space for the following year. Plus, insurance premium payments don’t count against the salary cap.

I was curious about how this works. If you’re interested in the business of the game this is an interesting read.