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. That August, the Swedish goaltender underwent hip surgery and has spent the last two seasons on the long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
For an injured player to remain on the LTIR, they must report to the team for a medical examination. If a player fails to report, their organization has grounds to terminate their contract without penalty. In other words, the money owed to them and their cap hit would come off the books.
When Lehner failed to report, Vegas was within their rights to void his contract. The Swedish goaltender had one season remaining on the five-year, $25 million contract he signed in October 2020.
Lehner was the recipient of the NHL’s Bill Masterton Trophy in 2019 as the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. The goaltender had an impressive 2018-19 campaign. Following a training camp in which he revealed 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.
At the beginning of training camp, Vegas’ general manager Kelly McCrimmon left the impression that Lehner’s absence was anticipated and a resolution was being worked on.
“He continues to be 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 eventually agreed to a settlement in which Lehner will be paid his entire $4.4 million salary for the 2024-25 season while the team will no longer have his cap hit count against their salary cap.
Elliotte Friedman appeared on Sportsnet‘s The Fan Hockey Show, where he shed light on the situation.
“The way it was described to me is that it’s almost as if his contract has been terminated, except that he will still be paid,” Friedman explained. “This is a unique situation, and I know everybody worked pretty hard to find a way to make this work. From what I’ve heard about it, it’s the best possible solution.”
It is the “best possible solution” for the player and the organization. Lehner will continue to get paid, and Vegas will get a reprieve. Vegas’ peers are likely wondering why the organization receives a financial break when the involved player has been on the LTIR since 2022.
By affording Vegas the opportunity to get out from underneath Lehner’s cap hit, the organization will start the regular season without relying on the LTIR to be cap-compliant. In other words, by being below the cap ceiling threshold, Vegas can accrue cap space, which should pay dividends by the March 7 trade deadline.
Lehner continues to be unfit to play, so it would have made more sense for the Golden Knights to nominally place the goaltender on LTIR without needing him to undergo a medical evaluation.
Instead, the league found a solution where the optics portray Vegas as receiving preferential treatment.
If there is a lesson to be learned by the Senators and their owner, Michael Andlauer, it is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Andlauer was kept in the dark during the sale process on important matters. The league and Eugene Melnyk’s estate misled him to believe that the LeBreton Flats arena deal was further along than it was. They also understated the severity of the Evgenii Dadonov situation.
Last October, the league punished the Senators with a forfeiture of a future first-round pick for the organization’s failure to disclose the continued presence of Dadonov’s no-trade list. When the Senators dealt Dadonov to Vegas in 2021, management incorrectly asserted that Dadonov had failed to submit an updated list of teams he did not want to be traded to, thereby voiding his no-trade clause.
When Vegas eventually tried to deal Dadonov to Anaheim at the 2022 trade deadline, Dadonov’s camp called foul, claiming that they had correctly submitted a trade list and that Anaheim was on the list of teams he could not be traded to. The league eventually ruled in Dadonov’s favour and voided the trade.
Vegas aggressively pushed for the Senators to be punished following that ruling. General manager Pierre Dorion was fired for his negligence and incompetency, so anyone responsible during that time is no longer with the organization.
Since arriving in Ottawa, Andlauer has toed the company line and begrudgingly accepted this punishment despite being misled on several fronts to boost the sale price of the Ottawa Senators organization.
He has justifiable reasons to be frustrated with the estate and the league. If they willingly misrepresented these key items at the time of the sale, he needs to learn a valuable lesson from Vegas and make some noise.
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