2. Robin Lehner
The Vegas Golden Knights are in a strange position this offseason. They are coming off a season where they missed the playoffs for the first time. They fired their head coach Peter DeBoer, in part thanks to the Devils. They have $200,000 in cap space next season. That’s not enough to upgrade anything. That’s without a backup goalie.
The Knights just might want to reset themselves in general. They made the move last year to trade Marc-Andre Fleury coming off a Vezina Trophy season. The Knights have no qualms trading players when they feel like doing it. The issue is they don’t have a better option behind Lehner. In fact, they don’t have any option behind him. Maybe a Lehner-Blackwood swap would make sense for the Knights? It would give them a younger option that’s cheaper. The Devils would get a more guaranteed option that they desperately need.
There is risk here since Lehner is coming off an injury-plagued season, and the Devils have been here before. They’ve dealt with goalies getting older and dealing with injuries that made them much worse than they were before. Lehner isn’t dealing with hip injuries like Cory Schneider once had to, but knee injuries can be scary as well. Lehner reportedly had surgery, and hopefully he will be ready for the start of next season.
Maybe the Devils can sign a Scott Wedgewood type to get them through the first part of the season until Bernier can return, and they can try a Lehner-Bernier combo to try and get them to the postseason.