Lehner will get paid, but is not counting against the cap

[Toby91ca]

I get it, but what exactly prevents a player from not reporting to its physical and still getting paid, while allowing the team to not use its LTIR?

What would be the purpose? Players want to play, it's that simple.

 

[dem]

What would be the purpose? Players want to play, it's that simple.

There have been tons of players that have ended their careers on years of LTIR

They didn't just get removed from the cap.

Except now. Because its Vegas and the NHL is gonna NHL.

 

[Toby91ca]

Must be nice to be the golden child.

Price should skip medicals, Habs have been handicapped 10.5M for 4 years now

I'm sure I am missing something, but can you explain how the Canadiens are handicapped by 10.5M and the Vegas is benefiting?

There have been tons of players that have ended their careers on years of LTIR

They didn't just get removed from the cap.

Except now. Because its Vegas and the NHL is gonna NHL.

I get it, this is an entirely unique situation, but I fail to understand some benefit to Vegas here. Several players have ended their careers on LTIR, but a lot of that is for the players as well....they continue to get paid rather than retire and not getting paid.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

I'm sure I am missing something, but can you explain how the Canadiens are handicapped by 10.5M and the Vegas is benefiting?


I get it, this is an entirely unique situation, but I fail to understand some benefit to Vegas here. Several players have ended their careers on LTIR, but a lot of that is for the players as well....they continue to get paid rather than retire and not getting paid.

Do you understand the difference between accruing cap space vs being on LTIR?

They now have 1.46m in salary cap that will accrue to be able to add a 6m dollar player at the deadline.

 

[Frank the Tank]

Unlike Philly and Johansen, Vegas doesn't also have to deal with the cap uncertainty of planning for different potential NHLPA grievance outcomes. It's an absolute gift of a decision for the franchise - no cap hit and the player won't file a grievance.

 

[Toby91ca]

No but you see, having one extra LTIR slot is a massive unfair advantage.

Can you explain this advantage? There is no limit to LTIR spots as far as I know.

 

[Peasy]

How is Lehner still able to be paid while having a seemingly significant breach of his contract by not going to physicals?

Because Vegas told him not to report with an under the table hand shake.

Sources told Daily Faceoff the final year of injured goaltender Robin Lehner’s $25 million contract will not count against the Golden Knights’ salary cap this season after a settlement was reached between the Golden Knights, NHL and NHL Players’ Association. Lehner was in violation of his contract when he failed to report for a mandatory medical exam to open training camp; Lehner previously made the Golden Knights aware he was unable to report for personal reasons.

Sources: Vegas Golden Knights get salary cap relief from Robin Lehner’s contract

Vegas won’t have to place him on LTIR and can begin accruing cap space each day they’re under the limit.

www.dailyfaceoff.com

 

[HanSolo]

Can you explain this advantage? There is no limit to LTIR spots as far as I know.

Bad assumption on my part.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

No but you see, having one extra LTIR slot is a massive unfair advantage.

You don’t seem to understand that being able to accrue cap space when you shouldn’t be, is a huge advantage

 

[Romang67]

Because Vegas told him not to report with an under the table hand shake.

Sources: Vegas Golden Knights get salary cap relief from Robin Lehner’s contract

Vegas won’t have to place him on LTIR and can begin accruing cap space each day they’re under the limit.

www.dailyfaceoff.com

That snippet doesn't support your claim.

 

[HanSolo]

Because Vegas told him not to report with an under the table hand shake.

Sources: Vegas Golden Knights get salary cap relief from Robin Lehner’s contract

Vegas won’t have to place him on LTIR and can begin accruing cap space each day they’re under the limit.

www.dailyfaceoff.com

Do you have a source for this or are you just making shit up? Nothing in the portion of the article you quoted indicates that the Knights made a deal with Lehner to induce him to refuse to report.

 

[MXD]

What would be the purpose? Players want to play, it's that simple.

To take a very obvious example, Carey Price wants to play. But he can't, because he can't pass a physical. Still on the Habs LTIR.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Wasn’t it reported that Lehner couldn’t make the physical due to personal reasons and he had let the team know in advance?

 

[Toby91ca]

Do you understand the difference between accruing cap space vs being on LTIR?

They now have 1.46m in salary cap that will accrue to be able to add a 6m dollar player at the deadline.

Like I said, I'm not sure I fully understand. I get the cap hit is not removed when a player is on LTIR, it just allows the team to exceed the cap while the player is on LTIR......and if they never come back, I don't see a big difference vs. not LTIR. I get there is some difference in cap room vs. where they are with cap before the player goes on LTIR though.

 

[Romang67]

Wasn’t it reported that Lehner couldn’t make the physical due to personal reasons and he had let the team know in advance?

Does that matter? Vegas can't put Lehner on LTIR without a physical regardless if he told them ahead of time he was going to no-show.

 

[MXD]

I'm sure I am missing something, but can you explain how the Canadiens are handicapped by 10.5M and the Vegas is benefiting?

Price counts on off-season cap and, on his own, prevents the Habs from spending to the cap in the post season, because his salary is over 10% of the salary cap. (teams can go up to 110% in the offseason).

Meaning that, if we exclude Price, the Canadiens could spend up to 110% during the postseason. Now it's something like 97%.

Like I said, Vegas probably shouldn't be penalized for a player that does not show up to its physical. But then they certainly shouldn't be paying him.

 

[Crede777]

Pretty sure every other team would’ve had to put him on LTIR. But apparently Vegas is allowed to somehow pay him but not have any salary cap consequences whatsoever for…reasons????

I think every other team would have moved to terminate his contract for failure to report. That's the weird part - VGK should be moving to terminate this contract and NOT have to pay Lehner.

 

[Siludin]

I'm a bit too out of the loop to fully know what's truly up.

I was under the assumption that Lehner was hurt to the point of never playing again. There are plenty of guys that fall in that camp, but they all still get paid. What was to gain for him by not taking the physical? Mental health reasons?

Pee pee test
(Not to be confused with a urinary sample for drug testing)

 

[Danarqhy]

Kinda? I mean, there is no chance Lehner would have passed the physical even if he had shown up. Lehner hasn't played hockey since April 2022. He played a combined 66 games in 2020-2022. He was falling apart long before he had the season ending surgery in August 2022.

All he had to do was show up to prove that. But he didn't.

Yes, but I think showing up and failing it is required in order to get paid. Sure, you can argue it's a technicality or whatever but it's clear some backroom shenanigans are going on here so as to not blow this story up too much. Wouldn't take too much effort to make this whole ordeal look more kosher, but for some reason they're not even meeting that very low bar which is very interesting.

The big problem is that the NHL doesn't seem to have any kind of mechanism in place to deal with a situation like this, so this all looks very shady.

 

[HanSolo]

You don’t seem to understand that being able to accrue cap space when you shouldn’t be, is a huge advantage

Fair point I didn't consider.

 

[Toby91ca]

To take a very obvious example, Carey Price wants to play. But he can't, because he can't pass a physical. Still on the Habs LTIR.

Yeah I get that, my point was more that this isn't a loophole that gets opened an teams will want to simply pay players not to show up....players won't want that. Lehner is an extremely unique example.

I'm nowhere close to the details on this, but I'm pretty comfortable concluding Vegas is treated differently than everyone else. I think all parties were simply working with a difficult situation and trying their best to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.

 

[Frank the Tank]

You don’t seem to understand that being able to accrue cap space when you shouldn’t be, is a huge advantage

Plus not having to account for a sudden change in cap space that a grievance by Lehner & the NHLPA may precipitate.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I have no issue with this. This kind of scenario isn’t what the cap system is intended to govern. It’s a unique situation where the player has gone rogue, just write it off and move on.

 

[Voight]

remembering when ottawa lost a first, after the league said they wouldnt because vegas cried about it

It was a deserved punishment for what they did.

 

[Viqsi]

I think every other team would have moved to terminate his contract for failure to report. That's the weird part - VGK should be moving to terminate this contract and NOT have to pay Lehner.

They did. That process was ongoing. This is what happened instead.