LAS VEGAS — Six weeks before the start of training camp, the Golden Knights found out they most likely will play the 2022-23 season without their starting goaltender.
Robin Lehner is expected to miss the season because of a hip injury that will require surgery, the team announced Thursday. An exact recovery timeline has not been determined.
Lehner was the Knights’ primary starter last season and went 23-17-2 with a .907 save percentage and 2.83 goals-against average.
Injuries have plagued Lehner since late last season. He had shoulder surgery May 4. He also suffered a lower-body injury March 8 that kept him out of the lineup until April 3.
The 31-year-old has three years left on his contract with a $5 million annual cap hit.
The Knights’ other goaltenders last season were veteran backup Laurent Brossoit and rookie Logan Thompson.
Brossoit was 10-9-3 with an .895 save percentage and 2.90 goals-against average. The 29-year-old had hip surgery this summer, and general manager Kelly McCrimmon said July 14 that Brossoit was “nip and tuck” to make the opening-night roster.
Thompson was 10-5-3 with a .914 save percentage and 2.68 goals-against average. The 25-year-old gained confidence from his first extended NHL action and said while playing for Team Canada at the World Championship that he thinks he can be a starting goaltender.
“I think I proved to myself, my teammates, the management that I can play at that level and be a No. 1 guy that we can rely on every night,” Thompson said.
The Knights also signed veteran goaltender Michael Hutchinson, who is 55-55-15 in 137 NHL games, to a one-year, $750,000 contract July 13 as a depth option.
Losing Lehner is a dispiriting blow to an organization that traded left wing Max Pacioretty — who has since torn his Achilles — right wing Evgenii Dadonov and defenseman Dylan Coghlan this summer after missing the playoffs for the first time in five seasons.
It also represents a steep drop-off in net for the Knights compared to what they’ve had recently.
The team won the 2021 Jennings Trophy for fewest goals allowed behind Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury and Lehner. Fleury was traded that offseason to Chicago for minor league forward Mikael Hakkarainen, who never joined the Knights, to clear salary cap space and the team’s depth chart in net.
Lehner was acquired Feb. 24, 2020, from Chicago at the trade deadline and supplanted Fleury as the starter that postseason. That led to Fleury’s agent, Allan Walsh, tweeting a picture of his client with a sword in his back with then-coach Pete DeBoer’s last name on it before the second round.
No similar flare-ups happened during the 2021 season and playoffs in a successful year for both goaltenders. McCrimmon said after trading Fleury that he thought the same arrangement would be “harder to manage” moving forward with both players deservedly viewing themselves as starting goaltenders.
Fleury was traded by the Blackhawks to Minnesota on March 21 and signed a two-year extension with a $3.5 million average annual value with the Wild this summer. He was 28-23-5 with a .908 save percentage and 2.90 goals-against average overall last season.
In their first season without Fleury, the Knights fell from second in team save percentage to 20th. That wasn’t all on the goaltenders. Numerous injuries forced the team to push harder for offense, which led to more odd-man rushes going the other way.
As a result, Lehner posted his worst save percentage since 2014-15 in Ottawa but still finished 18th among 119 NHL goaltenders in goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck.com. He missed the final three games after it was announced he needed shoulder surgery, following a few poor starts and criticism from DeBoer.
There was hope Lehner and the Knights’ goaltenders as a whole would see better results with new coach Bruce Cassidy. The Boston Bruins allowed the fewest scoring chances at five-on-five per 60 minutes in the NHL last season under Cassidy, leading him to describe his system as a “goaltender-friendly style of play” at his introductory news conference.
Those schemes will be put to the test this season. The Knights, two seasons after having the best goaltending tandem in the NHL, now have numerous questions at hockey’s most important position.
