On Tuesday, as his salary arbitration hearing rapidly approached, the Buffalo Sabres came to terms with restricted free agent goaltender Robin Lehner on a one-year, $4 million deal.
In 2016-2017, Lehner posted career best marks in wins (23), games played (59) and added two shutouts. The 26-year-old goaltender finished the year with an impressive .920 save percentage and 2.68 goals against average.
Bové's take:
This deal makes tons of sense for both sides. $4 million is still a pretty reasonable price to pay a starting goalie, and the term gives the Sabres flexibility moving forward.
For some reason there's a notion among some Sabres fans that Lehner isn't very good. I'm not quite sure why that's the case.
Lehner won the Sabres plenty of games last year they had no business winning. Despite his shootout woes, overall, Lehner had an impressive season with a very unimpressive defensive group in front of him. With a revamped blue line it's not far-fetched to think that Lehner can take his game to the next level.
