Seravalli: Vegas looking to terminate Lehner deal after he failed to report for physical

[Fatass]

Lehner gets his money.
It doesn’t count against the Vegas cap.
But the league counts it in the 50-50 split with the NHLPA.
It’s clear the league favours certain franchises. Snd why? Maybe because the league knows some franchises need every advantage possible to be a winner or the fans won’t come to game? Zero chance a Canadian club gets this kind of break on their cap.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Absolute bullshit. Other GM's should be raising hell

I guess Minnesota should've just had their two paperweights not report for camp and then come to a settlement so they didn't have huge buyout cap hits.

both those guys remained in the league and got new contacts though? Not really the same is it?

 

[SupremeTeam16]

They (and more importantly, the NHL) are afraid of the inevitable shitstorm when the uniformed, click bait media pickup the story of a professional sports team terminating the contract of a poor innocent person struggling with mental health. Is it factual? No. But that doesn't matter in the low attention span TikTok world we're forced to live in

So if the NHL is so paralyzed with fear by bad press then don’t approve the team to terminate the contract and let them handle it for the last year of the deal the same way they have since this saga began, problem solved.

The league makes accommodations for Lehner to fail his physical in a compassionate way, mindful of his mental health disorder. He gets his 5M, the league looks good and everyone goes on their merry way.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

No it won't. Stop treating a unique situation as if its suddenly the norm...

It's only a unique situation because no one has tried it before.

If it works for LV, other teams would be stupid to not see if they can get away with it too.

 

[JKG33]

So if the NHL is so paralyzed with fear by bad press then don’t approve the team to terminate the contract and let them handle it for the last year of the deal the same way they have since this saga began, problem solved.

Because, as others have noted, this would open up a loop hole for other teams to abuse.

The league makes accommodations for Lehner to fail his physical in a compassionate way, mindful of his mental health disorder. He gets his 5M, the league looks good and everyone goes on their merry way.

The league wants this to be a unique issue so other teams don't try to copy it on the sly. It's painfully obvious this situation is unique. The league doesn't want to reward Lehner for breaching his contract. They actually handled this about as well as they could've

 

[SupremeTeam16]

Because, as others have noted, this would open up a loop hole for other teams to abuse.


The league wants this to be a unique issue so other teams don't try to copy it on the sly. It's painfully obvious this situation is unique. The league doesn't want to reward Lehner for breaching his contract. They actually handled this about as well as they could've

What you’re saying makes absolutely zero sense. The league created the loophole for other teams to abuse by approving the contract termination and setting a precedent.

The league didn’t want to reward Lehner so they punished him by paying him the money for the contract even after he breached said contract in their view? Explain how that makes sense.

Whats stopping a player from skipping a physical and claiming a mental health disorder? Most people these days can claim a history of mental health issues other themselves or in their family and most people have probably had some sort of therapy or taken medication for some sort of mental health issue. Not difficult to elicit a mental health diagnoses these days. I get my pay out and no longer have to go through the ltir motions. The team isn’t going to fight me on it, they want the contract to go away. Is the league going to step in and fight a grievance or lawsuit in that situation or would they also be afraid of the public blowback as you, yourself suggested as their motivation for allowing this situation to happen.

Like I said earlier, they’ve created the loophole and backed themselves into a corner on it by approving the contract termination when there was a much simpler solution. The league arranges for Lehner to have a physical, he fails, goes on ltir as he has the other seasons, gets his money and no “unique” resolution is required. The team can fine him for not reporting for the physical on time.

 

[Korpse]

it's been discussed ad nauseum

it got to this point because No physical = no LTIR

No LTIR means Vegas has 3 options.

• Do nothing and be over the cap... not an option
• Suspend without pay
• Terminate contract

Both 2 & 3 have the same result, the NHLPA files a grievance and uses his mental health as a platform to get him his money... which is bad PR for the NHL and Vegas... so they agreed to pay him out to avoid the bullshit that would come with the grievance.

It's really really simple and makes sense if you take 5 seconds and think about it logically

I understand the process but you can keep repeating it if you like.

Do you think this was handled well from a PR perspective? You had Vegas announcing the termination out of the blue, feeding in to their reputation as ruthless. Then a statement from the player saying the league and team knew he wouldn’t be there. Now you have a team paying the player and getting cap relief when there’s already been so many questions about this team getting competitive advantages in the past.

And yes I know you believe everything Vegas has done is well within the rules but PR isn’t just about you. With all parties involved knowing the situation prior to training camp this was about as bad as you could have handled the situation. They knew what was going to happen and let it happen just to come to a settlement?

 

[Lunatik]

I understand the process but you can keep repeating it if you like.

Do you think this was handled well from a PR perspective? You had Vegas announcing the termination out of the blue, feeding in to their reputation as ruthless. Then a statement from the player saying the league and team knew he wouldn’t be there. Now you have a team paying the player and getting cap relief when there’s already been so many questions about this team getting competitive advantages in the past.

And yes I know you believe everything Vegas has done is well within the rules but PR isn’t just about you. With all parties involved knowing the situation prior to training camp this was about as bad as you could have handled the situation. They knew what was going to happen and let it happen just to come to a settlement?

Vegas hasn't announced shit.

Literally all they've said was that they knew he wasn't coming and they were looking into things, AFTER Lehner said something.

You need to learn reporters leaking stuff, ain't announcements.

How in any way is this bad PR for Vegas or the NHL? Oh no they let a guy that's mentally ill have his 4.5m salary without fighting him over it. What a bunch of f***ing monsters!!!!