Although I was ticked off when I initially heard about it, I read this morning that Vegas had the legal right to terminate Lehner's contract but didn't want to do so. All they wanted was cap relief.
So the team basically said, look, we're willing to pay him the actual dollars of the contract, but we don't want this contract to count against the cap. The player gets their money, we get cap relief. Everyone wins.
The NHLPA was fine with Lehner getting his money. That is all they really care about. The league understood the Golden Knights could get out of paying anything at all and get cap relief anyway. I think everyone involved wanted Lehner to still get paid. That speaks volumes about the current situation.
So the team basically said, look, we're willing to pay him the actual dollars of the contract, but we don't want this contract to count against the cap. The player gets their money, we get cap relief. Everyone wins.
The NHLPA was fine with Lehner getting his money. That is all they really care about. The league understood the Golden Knights could get out of paying anything at all and get cap relief anyway. I think everyone involved wanted Lehner to still get paid. That speaks volumes about the current situation.
