It’s Official: Golden Knights’ Lehner Discusses Five-Year, $25 Million Contract Saturday
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Robin Lehner has a home.
The 29-year-old goaltender for the Vegas Golden Knights discussed Saturday what everyone was already talking about the Pandemic Playoffs in Edmonton — that the six-foot, four-inch bulky goalie would be signing a five-year, $25 million contract to play for the Knights in Las Vegas.
It was no simple signing.
I guess you can put this dynamic into the “complicated” category.
During the Bubble Playoffs that ended with Dallas beating Vegas in the Western Conference Finals, VGK coach Pete DeBoer picked Lehner over original Knight Marc-Andre Fleury, a very popular and well-liked future Hall-of-Famer with the spectacular goaltender saves that are the stuff of posters. Fleury was what you would consider the face of the Golden Knights’ three-year-old franchise.
But Fleury’s agent, Allan Walsh, ignited a firestorm in August at the start of the Pandemic Playoffs when he posted and then removed an inflammatory picture on Twitter of Fleury being stabbed in the back with a sword with DeBoer’s name on it.
Fleury’s future with the Golden Knights is unknown. He has a $7 million contract hit against the team salary cap for 2020-21.
“We don’t anything about what will happen,” Lehner said of Fleury’s future.
Lehner also talked openly about his mental health issues, explaining the importance of the security of a five-year contract. He mentioned how in the sports and business worlds, “You can’t show weakness. It’s always held against you.”
Plus, Lehner said he appreciated the Golden Knights organization because there were no politics when it came to deciding which players saw ice time.
It’s a non-politics team. They do everything they can to put the best team on the ice. — Robin Lehner
Lehner was also one of two Golden Knights players to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem before the Knights-Dallas Stars game in the VGK’s first game in the NHL Bubble in Edmonton. He took a knee to shine a light on racial justice issues in the U.S.
After Lehner arrived in Las Vegas in a trade that involved the Chicago Blackhawks Feb. 24, he and Fleury played every other game during the regular season before the regular season ended in mid-March because of the novel coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of 210,000 Americans. Even President Donald Trump was infected with the COVID-19 virus.
But Lehner was the clear number one goalie in the playoffs, starting 16 games for the VHK and posting a 9-7 record with a .917 save percentage and 1.99 goals-against average. The Knights defeated the Blackhawks and Canucks in the first two rounds, but lost to Dallas in five games in the West Finals.
Lehner recorded his first career postseason shutout against Vancouver on August 23 and finished the playoffs with a league-high four shutouts.
After being acquired by Vegas, Lehner won each of his three regular-season games, finishing with a 1.67 GAA and a .940 save percentage to go with one shutout.
The Gothenburg, Sweden native had started 31 games with the Blackhawks during the 2019-20 season, posting a 16-10-5 record to go with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage.
Overall, Lehner has appeared in a total of 301 games and has a record of 116-120-45 to go with a 2.72 GAA and a .918 save percentage in his NHL career with the Blackhawks, Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders.
Following the 2018-19 season, he was awarded the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which is awarded annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey and William M. Jennings Trophy, which is to the goaltenders having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it based on regular-season play, while with the New York Islanders.
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