NHL Rumors: Golden Knights Likely to Trade Veteran Goalie

The Vegas Golden Knights are in a better position than they hoped they could be in after losing their starting goalie for the season. Robin Lehner has had injury troubles in the past and couldn't really be relied upon to provide consistent strong play last season due to being in and out of the lineup.

With Laurent Brossoit on the injured reserve to start the 2022-23 season, the Golden Knights turned to rookie Logan Thompson and traded for Adin Hill from the San Jose Sharks. This tandem has led the team to a 13-3-0 start which is second in the NHL. They have also backstopped the team to the second-best goals against per game with 2.31.

Dan Rosen suggests that the Golden Knights will likely try to trade Lehner this offseason if their tandem does well. Considering their start, things will have to go very wrong for the team to lose confidence in them. Trading Lehner will also help a cap-crunched team bolster their lineup elsewhere. The team has had to give away Max Pacioretty and Marc-Andre Fleury each of the past two seasons for nothing in order to stay cap compliant. They would like to stop having to do that.

Lehner has a cap hit of $5 million AAV for two more seasons after this one. Thompson is under contract through 2024-25 for just $766,667 and Hill is an unrestricted free agent after the season. As a 1b or backup goaltender, he won't require a ton of money to re-sign.