I already went over how I felt about Friday’s Sabres dealings. Now is the time to see what type of players the Sabres got with interviewing the writers who covered them. I should have the reaction to the Colorado deal tomorrow, but for today we got Graeme Nichols from the Sens site The 6th Sens to dish the dirt on Lehner and Legwand.
1) How do you feel about the trade?
It will be years before we can truly evaluate who won the deal, but on the surface, it’s hard not to like the fact that the Senators were able extract a first round pick out of the Sabres — especially in consideration of the relative returns elsewhere for guys like Eddie Lack and Cam Talbot. The inclusion of Legwand in the trade almost feels like it was done as a favour by Tim Murray to help out his uncle, since Buffalo’s not close to playoff contention, but can afford to add Legwand’s cap hit. So between the $5.5M in financial savings and the first rounder, Ottawa made out well. Legwand’s even strength production wasn’t great, but he played on the power play to get his production. He’s not the same speedy guy that Nashville developed. He’s just fourth line depth fodder.
On the other hand, the Senators spent a lot of time and money developing Robin Lehner. He’s been a professional since the age of 19 and now that he’s 23, it feels like he’s been around for years, but he’s still a really young goalie relative to his peers around the NHL. I think in Ottawa, where it’s easy to develop some tunnel vision because of the organization’s perennial pursuit to reach the postseason, everyone kind of exhibits a tendency to focus too much on the short-term results. It’s like the city’s been pervaded by a “what have you done for me lately?” mentality. Lehner’s struggled for a couple of years behind a bad defensive team, but being a young player who plays such a volatile position, struggles at such a young age aren’t just something that’s exclusive to Lehner.
My biggest concern is that Buffalo targeted a young goaltender who could grow with their own young core and in Ottawa, where the organization has a young and developing core, they elected to roll the dice on going with an aging Craig Anderson. Injury concerns aside, it’s reasonable to assume that his play and performance will deteriorate with age and because of that, the Senators may need to look for another goaltender when the young core takes another step forward. If Lehner flourishes in Buffalo, like Ben Bishop has in Tampa, there may be some serious revisionism going in Ottawa depending upon how well Colin White (21st overall selection) develops.
2) What are the pros and cons to Lehner’s game?
He’s a big (6’4″, 220+ lbs) goaltender who uses his size and angles to take away space from the shooters. For a big guy, he’s pretty agile and quick.
He’s also a really competitive person with a fiery demeanor. He wants to be the guy. In his first few seasons, this really came through in his interviews. He wanted to be the guy and “hunt down” Craig Anderson for the number one job, but over the past few seasons, we’ve seen less and less of this candor. Once in a while, you’ll still see it on the when the opposition scores a goal or the Senators lose a game when he skates back to the bench, but you see less of the raw emotion than you used to.
The con to Lehner’s game is that although he wanted that job, he never did himself any real favors to capture it. I mean, part of this rests in the fact that the Senators always gave Craig Anderson an opportunity to carry the ball and run with it, but whether it was the Ben Bishop acquisition or this year’s concussion, we never really had an opportunity to see what Lehner could do over a really long stretch of games. It makes evaluating him a little more difficult.
If I had to make one observation about his game, it’s that he seems to lose concentration or focus when the puck is moved down low near the goal line. I don’t know whether he’s thinking pass and worrying too much about identifying or anticipating where the puck is going to be moved to, but he lets in an inordinate amount of bad goals on weird angles near the goal line.
3) How has his development been? What does he need to improve on?
Like any young goaltender, his development has been up and down. Drafted in the second round of the 2009 draft, Lehner had size and pedigree. From there, he moved from Sweden to the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds where he had some great success before moving onto the Binghamton Senators. In his first professional season as a 19-year old in Binghamton, he played in 22 games as a backup to Barry Brust before he took on the starting goaltender role when the Senators faced a series deficit in the first round of the 2011 AHL playoffs. He would eventually be named the MVP of the playoffs for leading the Binghamton Senators to their first Calder Cup championship. I believe he was only the fourth teenage goalie to win the Calder Cup as a goaltender joining Carey Price, Patrick Roy and Gordie Bell (link: http://theahl.com/rookie-goalie-lehner-a-worthy-mvp-p171310).
Whether that immediate success went to his head or not, he and the Binghamton Senators struggled the next season. Although he got into a few games, the Senators acquired Ben Bishop for a second round pick to give the team some depth. I don’t know whether that move was intended to give Lehner a proverbial boot in the ass, but it worked. The next season, he had his best professional season and eventually it culminated with the Senators trading Bishop at the trade deadline to clear room for Lehner on the parent roster – even though the Senators could have waited until the offseason for a better trade.
Since he’s been a regular NHL player however, he has struggled to play consistently. He seems to play better when he’s getting a regular turn, but through Ottawa’s struggles and the coaching staff being on the hot seat to make the playoffs, Anderson’s been the guy (and admittedly, the safer bet to turn in a good performance). From a development standpoint, I think Lehner just has to be motivated and get an opportunity to play. I know some fans and media members believe that he blew his opportunities here, but I believe we forget just how young he was and how common it is for goalies his age to struggle. We might have expected too much from him so soon.
4) From what I read, he was touted as a can’t miss kid, but hasn’t put it together. Why is that?
He’s young and there’s still a ton of time for him to put it together. I think people take for granted just how few modern goalies there are who play in the league from 20 through 23 years of age. When you compare Lehner’s cumulative numbers to theirs, his numbers stack up. (Have a chart here)
5) Why has his GAA been terrible, but his save % has been decent?
Ottawa’s been a terrible defensive team over the past few years that routinely gives up an average of 30+ shots a night because of their troubles defending once the opposition gains the offensive zone with the puck. When you give up such a high volume of shots and shot attempts, you have the opportunity to allow a higher percentage of goals, but conversely, it also gives the goaltender the ability to make more saves.
6) How is he in the locker room?
I’m not even going to pretend that I have any idea of how well-liked he is within the room. It would be unfair for me to speculate on the matter.
7) Can Lehner be a #1 goalie?
Absolutely, I believe he can. Like him, I believe he just needs to get into games to develop. He simply hasn’t played enough these past few years to positively affect his development.
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