Goaltender Robin Lehner will carry a $0 cap hit for the Golden Knights this season, experiences Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. They’d reportedly been exploring options to terminate his contract after he didn’t report for his pre-training-camp bodily, which Lehner said was pre-planned.
The 33-year-old is coming into the ultimate season of a five-year, $25M contract, however he’s missed the entire final two seasons after present process double hip surgical procedure. He was anticipated to stay on long-term injured reserve for the entire 2024-25 marketing campaign as nicely, however Vegas couldn’t have positioned him there with out him failing a bodily.
Since he didn’t report, Vegas was in a difficult scenario, requiring the league and NHLPA to step in. The decision that also contain Lehner receiving his $4.4M wage for this season, per Seravalli, however he’ll successfully be suspended with out pay because it pertains to Vegas’ salary-cap image.
That takes a ton of workload off basic supervisor Kelly McCrimmon’s plate. The Golden Knights would have had no points beginning the season with a cap-compliant roster with Lehner on LTIR, however that wouldn’t have allowed them to accrue cap house all year long. They’ll now be capable to accrue house by working with out LTIR. It’ll be a big quantity of flexibility, too — with a full roster, they’ll have $1.36M in projected house on opening evening with Lehner basically off the books, per PuckPedia.
At this stage, if it wasn’t already, Lehner’s NHL profession must be thought-about over. The Swedish netminder made 364 appearances in components of 12 seasons with the Senators, Sabres, Knights, Islanders and Blackhawks, posting a powerful .917 profession SV% and a couple of.71 GAA with a 152-141-49 file and 17 shutouts.