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

[The Duck Knight]

This is 100% accurate.

This doesn't happen on any other team in the league. The Avs have a drug addict that has submarined TWO different playoffs that apparently they can't do anything about but the golden turds whack job goalie doesn't show up for preseason so the cap hit goes away ? Whatta joke.

If Val decides not to report after his suspension the Avs can terminate his contract AND not have to pay him. Right now his cap doesn't count at all.

Any player that doesn't report is going to have their cap hit vanish.

 

[Treb]

Can we do this for Ellis then?

Did Ellis refuse to report for his physical?

 

[Treb]

It seems to me Montreal should be getting $10.5 Million in cap relief for Cary Price after this.

Price will never play again. same situation. Just don't report for a physical.

But Price reports for his physical. Not the same situation.

 

[JKG33]

Why would Vegas care about Lehner complaining to the media? You are grossly overestimating

1. the degree to which the media in the US cares about hockey.
2. the degree to which it would be considered inflammatory if the team cut him for not fulfilling his contractual obligation to get a physical

Vegas probably doesn't care, but the NHL sure as shit would which is why they were involved in this

 

[vipera1960]

There’s no requirement that an LTIR have his physical at the team facility or with a team doctor. It only needs to be a team approved doctor. So the obvious settlement should have been to either (a) send an approved physician to wherever Lehner is or (b) approve LTIR without a physical. This solution just feels really, really greasy.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

If you'd read my posts I've addressed several times why this situation is unique. Lehner's time in Vegas has been nothing short of a circus. The league is only giving Lehner his money because he'd cry mental health to the media if they don't, otherwise Vegas would have easy grounds to terminate based on his conduct.

If you think another player, with agreement from their team, is going to parade around like Lehner has done these last few years, I'd love to have some of what you're smoking. They'd be terminated without pay so f***ing fast, the only reason Lehner has a case is because he blamed his being out of shape on mental health, when he could barely move across the net years ago

The fact is the league has created a precedent of a contract being terminated with payment and the cap hit coming off.

It’s needlessly messy and opens the door on a loophole that is attractive for both player and teams, that would put the league in a spot of having to make the argument to justify why one players mental health issues are more legitimate then another’s, a position you could understand they surely wouldn’t want to be in. Now I don’t think this becomes a big thing because there really aren’t that many suitable ltiretirement contracts out there where teams would be desperate for the cap relief, especially with the flat cap era seemingly in the rear view and the cap set to rise significantly.

The point remains, precedent has been set which creates a risk of someone trying to exploit which could put the league in an uncomfortable spot.

The league had a much easier way to handle the situation by saying that given his situation the breach didn’t rise to the level of contract termination. The team is aware of his conditions, just like they knew he wasn’t going to pass his physical which is a formality at this point, and they could of, either before or after, made arrangements to accommodate this unique situation that didn’t result in a potential loophole to be exploited but in that case Vegas wouldn’t of gotten the cap relief which was really the goal here.