Vegas Reportedly Has a Bold Strategy in Motion to Replace Goaltender Robin Lehner
News broke recently that Vegas Golden Knights G Robin Lehner will miss the entire 2022-23 season following surgery, adding to the total of games he has missed in recent years. Following a dramatic back-and-forth with former head coach Peter DeBoer, many thought a fresh start was in store as the Golden Knights look to right their ship. Alas, no.
With quite the mess -- frankly, a very avoidable one -- in front of him, GM Kelly McCrimmon reportedly has a bold new plan to attack his goaltending dilemma: nothing.
[ Seinfeld ]
According to Sheng Peng, of NBC Sports-California, one league source has told him that the Golden Knights intend to stand pat for now, relying on goaltenders Logan Thompson and Michael Hutchinson to man the cage out of the gate.
You would think Vegas' infamous salary cap situation is the real culprit here, but I don't know that this is the case.
$5.8 million over the cap, Vegas does have ~$8M on injured-reserve, at least $6M of which will definitely go to LTIR via Robin Lehner and Nolan Patrick, putting Vegas just under the cap. Then factor in Shea Weber's LTIR savings, which come in just north of $7.8M, and McCrimmon now has around $8M to spend on a goalie. RFA D Nic Hague also needs a contract, for what it's worth.
To state the obvious, opting to run Thompson and Hutchinson in net is a problem. A big one.
Goaltending is the most important position in hockey, it can elevate the worst teams and bootstrap even the best. And the tandem of Thomsky and Hutch lacks valuable experience, and neither of them is a true starting goaltender. Thompson was a decent story, but how reliable is he over a full 82? Especially factoring in his backup is Michael Hutchinson. Now, I'm not a major Hutch-hater, he is a fine depth goaltender, who had some of his worst performances in Toronto and it tanked his reputation.
Anecdotally, this is a terrible decision, but statistically it is only a bad decision. Between them, both goaltenders have combined for a 65-60-18 record in their NHL careers, fielding a collective 2.73 GAA and .910 SV%. Obviously, those numbers aren't encouraging for a supposed Cup contender, but I truly expected worse results. Even so, with these two between the pipes, Vegas won't last long in their quest to the Cup.
Ipso facto, if Peng's source is accurate and McCrimmon intends on running Thompson and Hutchinson to start the season, Vegas is more likely to land Connor Bedard than the Stanley Cup.
