Is Robin Lehner Becoming Expendable in Vegas?

The Vegas Golden Knights continue to astonish in just their 6th year of presence. Entering the season no one anticipated the Golden Knights to be this great. Especially with the concerns surrounding their goaltending. With Robin Lehner lost for the season due to double hip surgical treatment, and Laurent Brossoit missing out on the start of the season too, it was Logan Thompson to anchor the Golden Knights in between the pipelines.

Thompson’s efficiency to start the season has actually gone beyond expectations as the Golden Knights are being in top place in the Pacific Division. An all too familiar location for Vegas considering that going into the league. Thompson’s play needs to not come as a shock to anybody as he did his finest towards completion of last season likewise with Lehner out due to injury. Injuries to the remainder of the group reached Vegas as they lost to groups they must not have actually hence missed out on the playoffs.

With Thompson in the chauffeur’s seat as the clear top in Vegas and his backup Adin Hill likewise playing well, there are little rumblings about the future of Robin Lehner in Vegas.

Lehner came by in a trade throughout the 2019-20 season from the Chicago Blackhawks after he had a profession revival with the New York Islanders prior to that as he recorded his battle with psychological health concerns. At the time Vegas had Marc-Andre Fleury as the top and this tandem was the very best in the NHL at the time.

During the group’s run in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoff bubble, Lehner re-signed with the Golden Knights. His brand-new five-year agreement brought a $5 million income cap hit. With the Golden Knights ending up being a cap-strapped group, Vegas carried on from Fleury in favor of Lehner. There was no other way Vegas was going to pay $12 million to 2 goalies.

Now a number of years later on, Vegas remains in a comparable circumstance. Thompson will be due a raise as he presently uses his entry-level offer that brings a wage cap hit of $766,667. So the Golden Knight have time as Thompson is signed through the 2024-25 season. But if they wish to keep Adin Hill too, they will likely need to increase his cap hit from $2.175 million to around $2.5 million or more, particularly if he keeps these numbers up.

So that leaves Lehner on the outdoors with a $5 million cap hit, particularly if Vegas wishes to include pieces in other places.

Another issue for Lehner is that he is coming off double hip surgical treatment. It takes goalies a complete season to come back from that surgical treatment. Just ask Jonathan Quick, Cory Schneider, and Pekka Rinne. Schneider is presently in the AHL and never ever recuperated from that surgical treatment. It took Quick and Rinne a long time.

So it will be a difficult ask to be tossed right back into the starter’s function particularly if Thompson gets them deep into the playoffs.

Now Lehner manages the story as he has actually a customized eight-team no-trade list for this season. In the following 2 seasons that customized no-trade list is simply 5 groups. So there is a multitude of groups that he might go to. But if they are on the list then he can ban any trade.

Again, groups will wish to see what Lehner can do prior to trading for him. Or perhaps they won’t. However, if a trade does occur, Vegas might need to keep some cash. No method a competing group will wish to handle the complete $5 million income cap hit. But that will be on basic supervisor Kelly McCrimmon to choose.

Say Hill costs himself out of Vegas, the Golden Knights might attempt to ride the duo of Thompson and Lehner for one season and after that attempt to trade Lehner. Especially if Thompson keeps this rate up.

We have actually seen Robin Lehner get rid of the chances prior to. It would be another notch in such an exceptional story.

But this is a circumstance that deserves seeing as the season advances and when the offseason occurs.