Goaltender Robin Lehner will carry a $0 cap hit for the Golden Knights this season, stories Frank Seravalli of Day by day Faceoff. They’d reportedly been exploring choices to terminate his contract after he didn’t report for his pre-training-camp bodily, which Lehner stated was pre-planned.
The 33-year-old is getting 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 properly, however Vegas couldn’t have positioned him there with out him failing a bodily.
Since he didn’t report, Vegas was in a difficult state of affairs, 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 area all year long. They’ll now be capable of accrue area by working with out LTIR. It’ll be a major quantity of flexibility, too — with a full roster, they’ll have $1.36M in projected area on opening evening with Lehner primarily off the books, per PuckPedia.
At this stage, if it wasn’t already, Lehner’s NHL profession ought to 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 robust .917 profession SV% and a couple of.71 GAA with a 152-141-49 document and 17 shutouts.
