Confirmed Signing with Link: [NYI] Robin Lehner signs with the Islanders (1 year, $1.5M)

[Michel Beauchamp]

that 0 dollars on the cap really making me lose sleep

But it's still fun/crazy that he's getting $1.5M per year for 12 more years still...

 

[DapperCam]

As a Sabres fan that has watched nearly every game of the tank years, my take on Lehner:
- He is huge, and has okay positioning, so he can make saves if he has time to get into position.
- He frequently gives up goals because he didn’t hug the post.
- His lateral movement is terrible. Idk if he’s overweight, or had injuries, or what. On the plus side, sometimes he makes awesome highlight reel saves because he’s so far out of position.
- He kicks out huge rebounds, to the point where I think it’s intentional and part of his strategy
- Glove hand is okay
- Lets in softies way too frequently.
- Complains about the team to the media
- Can’t save a shootout attempt. It’s a guaranteed L if you get to the shootout. You’d be better off putting in the cold backup. Can’t save in-game breakaways either. Mostly because he can’t move well enough.

I guess he could work out if the team in front of him was so good he never had to move. He is out of the NHL after this year in my mind if he doesn’t have a better year.

 

[BananaSquad]

Terrible goalie. I usually don’t care, but man this guy is horrid.

 

[LordNeverLose]

Swing and a miss. Like, a really wide miss. Lundqvist pretty much took most of the blame for everything, his mistakes and his teammates mistake for nearly his first 10 years.

 

[GuyBoucherEvilGenius]

You think the Islanders are going to be better than Buffalo? Okay...

Yes I do. Losing Tavares obviously hurts but I don't see them being the disaster Buffalo has been recently.

Yea, well, as a Sabres fan who has watched every Sabres game since Lehner became a Sabre, I can tell you straight out your bull **** ting yourself. He was a massive part of the problem. Specifically his skill level. But, you think what you want to think. Have a nice day now.

And I watched him plenty when he was with Ottawa. I understand the frustration from Buffalo fans. But He's not as bad as is being portrayed IMO. Worth a shot for 1.5 million on a one year deal. Really nothing to lose. I think the talent is still there.

 

[bukwas]

This was a good move.

 

[Hellinator]

The problem with Lehner is he can't skate backwards. So on breakaways or shootouts he can't challenge the skater and if he does the shooter can deke and score from the side. His only move is to turn and dive. If he roams at all he's screwed if the puck is turned over. His strength is square to the shooter inside his net which he is big and hard to find openings. Very rarely will he steal a game but on occasion can. Has a good glove and average puck handling. If he gives up a bad goal he can self destruct. Would be curious what a good defence could do for him though.

 

[Brock Radunske]

Nothing to lose, everything to gain. Love this for the Islanders.

 

[Zip15]

Korn could help him a lot.

 

[crashthenet]

Someone posted he can't skate backwards. Oh my. I guess his comments are as valuable as some of the other goaltending gurus posting.

Buffalo fans chirping the Islanders. When do the Sens and Coyote fans show up?

 

[Digable5]

Someone posted he can't skate backwards. Oh my. I guess his comments are as valuable as some of the other goaltending gurus posting.

Buffalo fans chirping the Islanders. When do the Sens and Coyote fans show up?

I didn’t notice Buffalo chirping the Islanders (can’t say I read EVERY post though). Plenty had opinions on Lehner and shouldn’t be all that surprising that they are negative.

I’ll be honest and say I hate him. From the price paid to acquire him to losing all but one shootout over the last two seasons. I was overjoyed to see him leave.

He’s got only one thing going for him. He’s big, and therefore covers a lot of the net. With a good defense that may be all you need, but I wouldn’t wish him on any team but the Maple
Leafs (because they are the only thing in hockey I hate more than Robin Lehner.....Brad Marchand is in the conversation too).

 

[Kyndig]

I didn’t notice Buffalo chirping the Islanders (can’t say I read EVERY post though). Plenty had opinions on Lehner and shouldn’t be all that surprising that they are negative.

I’ll be honest and say I hate him. From the price paid to acquire him to losing all but one shootout over the last two seasons. I was overjoyed to see him leave.

He’s got only one thing going for him. He’s big, and therefore covers a lot of the net. With a good defense that may be all you need, but I wouldn’t wish him on any team but the Maple
Leafs (because they are the only thing in hockey I hate more than Robin Lehner.....Brad Marchand is in the conversation too).

I think that shootout win was because every shooter they had missed the net.

 

[RWatson29]

Sabres fan here. I actually didn't mind lehner at all. It's hard to judge him when there is absolutely zero structure in the team game. Yeah he let in his softies, but the amount of quality shots the guy faced was insane. Multiple breakaways, guys wide open on the backdoor or in the slot, guys unable to pick up a man or clear the rebound. I'd be really curious to see how he would do in a sound defensive system. He's definitely not as bad as most sabres fans make it out to be. Any goalie is Swiss cheese with beaulieu with his head so far up his ass, gorges actually playing minutes and ristolainen more worried about face washing guys after the whistle most of the game. (Actually a huge risto fan, he just drives me nuts with his over the type mike Weber unnecessary roughness.)

 

[WeDislikeEich]

Ironically we get the guy who our pick was traded for in 2015, so screw you Buffalo

Lol. That's awesome.

It's crazy, Buffalo really doesn't have much to show from that trade.

We got Moulson, your 1st and 2nd.

Then traded Moulson for a 2014 2nd and 2016 2nd.


All Buffalo has to show from it is:

- Vaclav Karabacek (looking kind of like a bust. I really don't know if/when we will ever see him in the NHL at this point)

- Brendan Guhle (thankfully! The only good thing Buffalo got out of that trade, but it's looking like it could end up being a damn good pick).

The other 2nd was traded for Josh Gorges (and eventually ended up being used by Chicago to draft Alex DeBrincat... damn it).

So, basically it was Vanek for Guhle at this point...


It is absolutely unreal just how horrible Tim Murray's tenure turned out here. Buffalo had a massive stockpile of assets when he took over, and we have barely anything to show for it barely 5yrs later.
It's unbelieveable, really.

 

[PWJunior]

Lol. That's awesome.

It's crazy, Buffalo really doesn't have much to show from that trade.

We got Moulson, your 1st and 2nd.

Then traded Moulson for a 2014 2nd and 2016 2nd.


All Buffalo has to show from it is:

- Vaclav Karabacek (looking kind of like a bust. I really don't know if/when we will ever see him in the NHL at this point)

- Brendan Guhle (thankfully! The only good thing Buffalo got out of that trade, but it's looking like it could end up being a damn good pick).

The other 2nd was traded for Josh Gorges (and eventually ended up being used by Chicago to draft Alex DeBrincat... damn it).

So, basically it was Vanek for Guhle at this point...


It is absolutely unreal just how horrible Tim Murray's tenure turned out here. Buffalo had a massive stockpile of assets when he took over, and we have barely anything to show for it barely 5yrs later.
It's unbelieveable, really.

Hopefully better days for both the Isles and Buffalo going forward.

 

[Yatzhee]

Lehner is not good at goaltending. You should play him as an enforcer on the 4th line...…..

Signed,
A Sabres Fan

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

He's an absolute horrid goalie and will single handily cost you every shootout he partakes in. He literally went an entire season without making a single save in the shootout, that is almost impossible to accomplish. And this is definitely not sour grapes, 95% of Sabre fans hated the trade the moment it happened and hated it the entire duration of his 3 years here.

Thank god Murray is gone. #21 overall in an elite draft with literally several high end players available. Instead we moved it and the minimum 3 years of ELC/7 years team control for a stud prospect to acquire Robin Lehner for 3 seasons and also help out his uncle by taking a huge camp dump for a garbage player. 3 mil even for just one season is a big camp dump for a garbage 4th liner. Our current GM took a smaller cap dump and acquired a legit top 6 young LWer. Our last GM took a bigger camp dump, gave up an elite asset just for a garbage goalie who lasted 3 years in Buffalo.

Islander fans, I know we had our differences back in 14-15 because of some ass hat deplorable people who were wishing injuries on players because we had your 1st. I apologize on behalf of those ignorant jerks who would wish harm on a person over a freaking hockey game. But when I say Robin Lehner is horrid and will lead your team to a bottom 10 finish I'm saying it in a truthful respectful way and I am actually rooting for you guys after what John Tavares did to you guys, in a gutless move.

At least it's just one year. Isles will be fine, Barzal is a fine young talent literally one tiny notch below Eichel and Matthews. In fact the Isles should be thankful they didn't give 8 years to JT. With how bad he skates and how fast the game is getting I predict by the time he's on the wrong side of 30 is when he has a Jason Allison type drop off.

What Lehner will do is play great for a few weeks then absolutely horrific for twice as long. He has pumped up inflated save percentage that is not an indicator of his actual skill. He is more of a 1B/backup then a starter. Luckily he's being paid like one. I would say it's a low risk move due to term and salary but he is a net negative presence in the locker room and can possibly harm the young stars the Isles have. It's the reason Botterill immediately got RoR and Lehner off the roster. Those 2 were causing major issues for the Sabres locker room.

 

[Thorton02]

For the isles sake, I hope he finds success there. Just pray you don't go to a shootout.

 

[GrandmaSlices51631]

As an Isles fan, I hate this signing. As Sabres fans have mentioned, Lehner is a sub-par goalie, this is by no means an improvement on Halak.

Oh yeah, the Islanders wind up in plenty of shootouts, so the fact that he can't stop a shootout attempt is a telltale sign that this is going to go sour sooner then later, seems like a means to Jack Hughes IMO

 

[Icelevel]

Lol. That's awesome.

It's crazy, Buffalo really doesn't have much to show from that trade.

We got Moulson, your 1st and 2nd.

Then traded Moulson for a 2014 2nd and 2016 2nd.


All Buffalo has to show from it is:

- Vaclav Karabacek (looking kind of like a bust. I really don't know if/when we will ever see him in the NHL at this point)

- Brendan Guhle (thankfully! The only good thing Buffalo got out of that trade, but it's looking like it could end up being a damn good pick).

The other 2nd was traded for Josh Gorges (and eventually ended up being used by Chicago to draft Alex DeBrincat... damn it).

So, basically it was Vanek for Guhle at this point...


It is absolutely unreal just how horrible Tim Murray's tenure turned out here. Buffalo had a massive stockpile of assets when he took over, and we have barely anything to show for it barely 5yrs later.
It's unbelieveable, really.

What I learned with tim Murray going to buffalo was that...man, there are a lot of dumb buffalo fans.

 

[haseoke39]

As a Sabres fan that has watched nearly every game of the tank years, my take on Lehner:
- He is huge, and has okay positioning, so he can make saves if he has time to get into position.
- He frequently gives up goals because he didn’t hug the post.
- His lateral movement is terrible. Idk if he’s overweight, or had injuries, or what. On the plus side, sometimes he makes awesome highlight reel saves because he’s so far out of position.
- He kicks out huge rebounds, to the point where I think it’s intentional and part of his strategy
- Glove hand is okay
- Lets in softies way too frequently.
- Complains about the team to the media
- Can’t save a shootout attempt. It’s a guaranteed L if you get to the shootout. You’d be better off putting in the cold backup. Can’t save in-game breakaways either. Mostly because he can’t move well enough.

I guess he could work out if the team in front of him was so good he never had to move. He is out of the NHL after this year in my mind if he doesn’t have a better year.

I second this guy's analysis. Bad movement low in his crouch / in his butterfly and bad technique against his posts are big reasons why he's not coming back here. I do believe teams have started trying to stuff it against the post on him more because there has been enough history there to know they can turn nothing into a goal every once in a while. On the movement side, there are times when I've seen him go down, then need to do a lateral push across, and instead take the time to get up completely onto his skates so he was kind of leaning over the shot from the other side as it came in. If you have fans who play goal or just understand the technical aspects of the position, he'll drive them mad.

That said, he put up .920 a couple years ago. Give him a clear lane, he is big and has great hand-eye. He'll make that first stop. Not for nothing he's in the league.

But word of caution -- hope he doesn't cause locker room friction. He had a tendency of publicly lashing out at his teammates after bad games, and more than a few folks suspect that led to tension in the room and part of why he's gone.

 

[haseoke39]

Yeah, the shootout thing got into his head in a huge way a couple years ago. He did not stop one shootout attempt all season. It was staggering. By March or so, he was so psyched out it was comical. There was one attempt I remember, the skater loses control of the puck completely about ten, fifteen feet out, but Lehner flops on his belly and follows the puck-less deke, as the skater looks on in bafflement and the unaccompanied puck slowly trickles into the open cage.

Like, he was not in his mind after a while. Hope your goalie coach can get him some good confidence-boosting reps.

But again, as DapperCam noted above, weakness in shootouts is linked to weakness in mobility. If he's not confident about his ability to follow the skater at speed, he's going to try to guess early more often. And that sets you up to get picked apart.

And weakness in mobility, as DC noted above again, could be linked to size. He did come in at 240 lbs a couple years ago. Think he shaved some off, but it's not a good playing weight for goalies.

 

[DatDude44]

I think that shootout win was because every shooter they had missed the net.

I thought it was because Johnson was in net lol

 

[Hellinator]

Someone posted he can't skate backwards. Oh my. I guess his comments are as valuable as some of the other goaltending gurus posting.

Buffalo fans chirping the Islanders. When do the Sens and Coyote fans show up?

Yes I posted that he can't skate backwards. I can say that because we have had some pretty good goalies on our team before that can demonstrate how to stop a shootout attempt or a break-a-way. Ryan Miller was one of the best in his prime where he would immediately skate out 10-15 feet in front of the crease and dig his right or left skate in the ice and start moving backwards to slowly cut down the angle as the shooter came in, plus he was already moving so it was difficult to deke around him. Now when your goalie doesn't make a single save in a season, you start to look for reasons why they aren't doing it. Was he hurt? Not when his same mechanics were the same for all years he was here. He doesn't skate backwards..ever. I have seen him glide like 2 feet a couple of times but when he does his legs are "stuck" open and the shooter can just let the puck dribble through his legs. Even the Sabres reporter Paul Hamilton had a story last week that the team was practicing 3v3 situations (not sure when it was) and it went to a shootout and he would refuse to do it and go skate in the corner by himself. He has no confidence in doing them and rightfully so. Now, I won't even go into the 40 years history of watching some of the best Goalies Dominic Hasek, Tom Barasso, Grant Furr and many other great goalies within our rich history or that I played hockey when I was in the USN. I have been saying this to Sabre's fans for a couple of years now and no one can dispute this because when I tell them they will immediately understand what I am talking about. How you came up with chirping Islanders fans is beyond me especially when most Buffalo fans have empathized the loss of Tavaras and have shown support to your franchise while never giving that same respect to the Rags. I guess I should have come and told you how great he is to boost your spirits but this is a discussion board and I am sure you've laid out your own opinions on players before.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Would anyone be surprised if they found 12 dead hookers in Lehners basement?