News: Robin Lehner and Isles far apart in contract talks, departure looks very likely

[OurlordAndSaviorKuch]

Isles going after Bob?

 

[Legionnaire11]

Did you include this season in those calculations? Because between Lehner becoming a starter in the NHL ('14) and the '18 season hes 26th out of 37 whos played 150+ games while being 27th in SA. Thats not a great stat line tbh. Actually his stat line over those seasons is on par with James Reimer. At ES is gets worse... This season was an outlier for Lehner. We've seen it with other goalies before and we'll see it again.

Lehner wasn't a starter in 2014, so your view is already skewed. VERY convenient that you want to push the timeframe back and drop his best season to prove a point. How many players look worse when you drop their best season?

If you want to just say, the timeframe that Lehner was a starter (ie Buffalo) and negate this season, we have to take the games played down to 100, and then Lehner comes in at 18th and ALL of that time was on one of the absolute worst teams in the league where no goalie would perform at an all-star level. Yet Lehner still finished over .920 twice, and then crashed when Housley somehow managed to make things worse.

 

[10Ducky10]

Lou is playing hardball and will eventually sign him. The Isles have a great team and aren't far away from being a serious contender.

 

[leaffaninvancouver]

Business is business

With the challenges he’s had he might think it’s his only chance for a payday. Strike while the iron is hot and all that.

I hope he re-signs though, guy has had enough challenges and he seems pretty popular there.

 

[SI90]

With the challenges he’s had he might think it’s his only chance for a payday. Strike while the iron is hot and all that.

I hope he re-signs though, guy has had enough challenges and he seems pretty popular.

100% agree. He doesn’t know if he will replicate the success of this season. I just hope they can come to a nice comprise that makes everyone happy.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

Pay the man, Islanders.

 

[Rivet52]

Yeah, it was what I thought. Someone posted on Facebook today that Lehner stopped by a reptile store in South Florida, and he posted the picture on Facebook. Dwork is running with it, hoping he hits. He tweeted last week, before the UFA talking period started, that the Panthers and Panarin were closing in on an agreement, which would have been tampering. He later clarified that he was going off the information that was available to all of us at the moment, and he was connecting the dots.

Robin is an avid reptile owner so that’s no surprise to me.

"Lehner is a product of Trotz and Korn!"

Except over the past 5 seasons, among goalies with 200 starts (40 per year), Lehner is 10th in SV%

Lower the threshold to 100 games played and he only drops to 14th. 50 GP drops him to 16th.

Lehner is quite a capable goalie, who not only received good coaching, but finally signed onto a team with NHL capable structure and most importantly he sobered up and got his head right. If he went to Edmonton or Ottawa, no I don't think he's going to carry them to the playoffs, but I don't think it's a big risk to NYI to sign him for another 3-4 years.

Of course, if he's asking for something ridiculous, then it's understandable. I wouldn't give him more than $5.5-6M tops. But if it's just a money thing, hopefully the Isles can come out afterwards and say "We love what Robin brought, we really wanted him back but financially we couldn't make it work here".

And if it's financial, and he can get closer to his ask somewhere else, that's great too. Why shouldn't he try to cash in on a career year and ensure his family is more than comfortable for the rest of their lives? So, I don't think the situation is probably as toxic as tweeters want people to think. I'm sure both sides understand the business part of hockey, it would just stink that such a feel good story has to end because of it.

I have a personal connection to the player but I’m still going to avoid being biased and say that Trotz and Korn are likely the big reason he was able to do what he did last season. Don’t get me wrong, he can be a really good goalie when he’s on but it seems that when he’s off, he struggles big-time. Overall his numbers even outside of last season are better than some might think but system likely played a huge role in it last year. I can’t say enough how good Trotz and Korn are at what they do. They’re arguably the best in the sport at it, which is why Trotz walked away with another Jack Adams. They’ve had goalies like Pekka Rinne and Brayden Holtby but have gotten the most out of Carter Hutton, Philippe Grubauer, Thomas Greiss and others, none of which are superstars. They do it time and time again and as of now, it’s easier to lean toward Lehner being in the latter category than the former. Sure, it’s possible he’s a better player with nothing else taken into account other than his personal issues now than he was in the past but I don’t think anyone can guarantee he’ll be successful elsewhere outside of that system until we see it happen. If I were another team, I’d be very cautious in giving him a big deal. I think it’s more likely than not his numbers drop away from Trotz but you never know.

If I were Robin, the ideal situation would obviously be to agree to a deal to stay put in a system that worked for him. There’s no better place to be for a goalie, especially one whose role as an NHL starter was at question just a year ago. I hope he takes that into consideration but you can’t blame him for trying to cash in. I just wouldn’t be the team to hand him that kind of deal. The Islanders no doubt would like him back but if Lou has a price in mind that he won’t go over, I don’t blame him. Sorokin’s close and like others have said, you can plug in another goalie like Varlamov or even Mrazek and I’m betting the Isles will be just fine in net. Lou can walk away if the price is too high and rest assured he can get one of the others available cheaper and still get the results. That’s what having Trotz does for you. He’s an incredible coach and Mitch Korn shouldn’t be overlooked either. I’m still jealous my team couldn’t hire them last summer.

Did you include this season in those calculations? Because between Lehner becoming a starter in the NHL ('14) and the '18 season hes 26th out of 37 whos played 150+ games while being 27th in SA. Thats not a great stat line tbh. Actually his stat line over those seasons is on par with James Reimer. At ES is gets worse... This season was an outlier for Lehner. We've seen it with other goalies before and we'll see it again.

Lehner didn’t become a true starter until he arrived in Buffalo in 2015 but your point still stands. It’ll be interesting to see if he can replicate his career year if he does move on. Last season was absolutely an outlier though. Until we see it more than once, I don’t think it’s accurate to assume differently. I love the player and am happy for him. As someone with a connection to him I’m glad everything happened the way it did for him. But I’m still weary. One year hasn’t sold me. We’ll see.

 

[Yackiberg8]

Last time they didn’t re-sign their captain they made the playoffs and won a round.

Bold strategy.

 

[boredmale]

Last time they didn’t re-sign their captain they made the playoffs and won a round.

Maybe they plan to set a trend then name Ladd the next Team Captain

 

[boredmale]

Isles going after Bob?

I can't really speak for Lou but I feel Panarin is the one they really want and after that they will worry about goaltending(if Panarin and Bob come as a package I can see Islanders going for that)

 

[robsenz]

I wouldn't put any money on that alcoholic.

classy outlook

 

[Dog]

Colorado or Carolina should go after him. They both need a goalie and both be good location.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Stupid. Dance with the one that brought ya

 

[Quicklime]

This shouldn’t be happening.

I trust Lou, but not with this. If he doesn’t bring Lehner back, I’ll be hella-pissed.

 

[Foppberg]

I wouldn't put any money on that alcoholic.

As if you're above people with addiction problems. Go f*** yourself

 

[DANTHEMAN1967]

Lou losing another one.

 

[boredmale]

Lou losing another one.

As long as we don't lose Trotz and Mitch Korn, our goaltending should be fine no matter who is in net

 

[Quicklime]

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Lehner came alive here. He belongs here at this juncture.

Lou should know this.

 

[One Winged Angel]

Staple was also WAY off on Eberle too, so I personally am not putting too much cred into this, honestly the guys on Sirius (The Fourth Period folks) have been nailing Isles news since last year and have been undercutting our own beat/insiders. They 100% have a legitimate Isles source.

Could be an agent trying to get leverage.

Been saying this for a while now and people have laughed at me in threads.

Thank you.

 

[Quicklime]

They’d f***ing better sign him.

 

[bleedgreen]

What is going on in NY? Losing Lehner and Lee would be a real blow...

Ufa’s want a ton of money and most of the contracts carry term no one wants the back half of.

Common sense is probably going on in NY.

 

[Howie Hodge]

I wouldn't put any money on that alcoholic.

The man came out and owned his issues, which is the first part of recovery.

Most empathetic people respect him for that.

However, your premises of him being a bit of a risk does hold some water.....

It should just be stated in a less vitriol manner.

 

[Kolja]

Isles. A bad history of goalies.

 

[Macbanan]

Lehner will always be risky considering his issues. It comes with the territory of psychiatric problems that they are inherently volatile, or at least more so than someone not suffering from them.

I hope he never has a bipolar episode again but it's likely he will, and the medications used to counter them takes time to work and has side effects. Maybe he'll be able to play through them and his play will be unaffected, but maybe not.. These things are very unfair but every team will have to take them into consideration.

On the flip side of it, with the array of different diagnoses the doctors have probably had to try a lot of different combinations of medications and dosages and it takes many weeks to evaluate their effects. I think it's likely he's been playing the last season with an ever changing list of medications and still managing to get a 93.0% save percentage.

Once he settles on the right medications he may have potential to improve his play even more. For example he said he would try to lose the weight he gained as a side effect of a drug in this offseason.

 

[Ivan13]

Colorado or Carolina should go after him. They both need a goalie and both be good location.

Avs have Grubauer and Francouz, we good.