In an intriguing development, the NHL and NHLPA reached an agreement regarding Robin Lehner’s contract situation in Vegas.
The former Ottawa senator has not appeared in an NHL game since April 20, 2022. In August, the Swedish goaltender underwent hip surgery and spent the past two seasons on long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
If an injured player wishes to remain on the LTIR, he/she must report to the team for a medical examination. If a player does not report, his organization has grounds to terminate the contract without penalty. In other words, the money owed to them and their cap hit would disappear from the books.
When Lehner didn’t report, Vegas had the right to void his contract. The Swedish goaltender had one season left on the five-year, $25 million contract he signed in October 2020.
Lehner received the NHL’s Bill Masterton Trophy in 2019 as the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. The goalkeeper had an impressive 2018/19 season. After a training camp in which he exposed addiction and mental health issues, Lenher posted a 25-13-5 record with a 2.13 goals against average and a .930 save percentage in 46 appearances.
Early in training camp, Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon gave the impression that Lehner’s absence was expected and a solution was being worked on.
“He is still unfit to play,” the general manager told reporters. “There are unique circumstances surrounding the situation that the NHL, the NHLPA and the club are currently working through.”
The parties ultimately reached a settlement under which Lehner will receive his full $4.4 million salary for the 2024-2025 season, while the team will no longer have his cap hits count against their salary cap.
Elliotte Friedman appeared on Sportsnet‘S The Fan Hockey Showwhere he shed light on the situation.
“The way it was described to me is that it’s almost like his contract has been terminated, except he’s still getting paid,” Friedman explained. “This is a unique situation and I know everyone has worked pretty hard to find a way to make this work. From what I’ve heard about it, this is the best possible solution.”
It is the “best possible solution” for the player and the organization. Lehner continues to get paid and Vegas gets a reprieve. Vegas colleagues are probably wondering why the organization is receiving a financial cut while the player involved has been on the LTIR since 2022.
By giving Vegas the opportunity to get out of Lehner’s cap hit, the organization will enter the regular season without relying on LTIR to be cap compliant. In other words, staying below the cap threshold allows Vegas to build up cap space, which should pay dividends by the March 7 trade deadline.
Lehner is still unfit to play, so it would have made more sense for the Golden Knights to nominally place the goaltender on LTIR without requiring him to undergo a medical evaluation.
Instead, the league found a solution where the optics portray Vegas as receiving preferential treatment.
If there’s one lesson the Senators and their owner, Michael Andlauer, can learn, it’s that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Andlauer remained in the dark about important matters during the sales process. The league and Eugene Melnyk’s legacy led him to believe the LeBreton Flats arena deal was further along than it was. They also underestimated the seriousness of Evgenii Dadonov’s situation.
Last October, the league punished the Senators with a loss of a future first-round election after failing to disclose the continued presence of Dadonov’s no-trade list. When the Senators dealt Dadonov to Vegas in 2021, management falsely claimed that Dadonov had failed to submit an updated list of teams he did not want to be traded to, thus voiding his no-trade clause.
When Vegas finally tried to deal Dadonov to Anaheim at the 2022 trade deadline, Dadonov’s camp called foul, claiming they had properly submitted a trade list and that Anaheim was on the list of teams he couldn’t be traded to. The league ultimately ruled in Dadonov’s favor and voided the transaction.
Vegas aggressively pushed for the senators to be punished after that ruling. General manager Pierre Dorion was fired due to his negligence and incompetence, so everyone responsible during that time is no longer with the organization.
Since arriving in Ottawa, Andlauer has followed the company’s line and reluctantly accepted this punishment despite being tricked on several fronts into increasing the sale price of the Ottawa Senators organization.
He has valid reasons to be frustrated with the estate and the competition. If they knowingly misrepresented these important items at the time of the sale, he needs to learn a valuable lesson from Vegas and make some noise.
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