It appears as if the Golden Knights will have their goalie tandem intact once again as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that they have activated Robin Lehner off LTIR. He had been out for more than a month due to a lower-body injury, forcing Marc-Andre Fleury to take the bulk of the workload though the veteran did quite well in that stretch.
Still, having Lehner back will give Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer much more flexibility in setting his gameday roster, at least when it comes to his goaltending decisions. Prior to the injury, the netminders were basically in a platoon situation and even with as well as Fleury played, it wouldn’t be surprising to see that trend resume soon with an eye on keeping Fleury fresh for the postseason.
As for Lehner, he had gotten off to a bit of a quieter start by his standards as he posted a 2.96 GAA along with a .890 SV% in his first five starts before the injury. While he did spend some time on a conditioning stint with AHL Henderson, he didn’t see any game action. Considering how long he has been off, he may be a little rusty when he gets into the lineup.
To make the finances work, Vegas had to make a long list of roster moves to get cap compliant which was required before Lehner could be activated. Cody Glass, Nicolas Hague, Patrick Brown, and Dylan Coghlan were all sent to the taxi squad while Logan Thompson went from the NHL roster to the minors. To make room on the taxi squad for those four assignments, Gage Quinney, Dylan Ferguson, and Carl Dahlstrom were all sent to Henderson. The Golden Knights are back under the cap, albeit by less than $40K with a minimum-sized roster so while DeBoer has some flexibility in his goaltending choice, that’s about the only decision he’ll be able to make in terms of who plays and who doesn’t for a while.
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