Dater’s Daily: Vegas Loses Goalie Lehner For Season, Makar’s Day With Cup

Tough news for the Vegas Golden Knights today (don’t look so sad, Avalanche fans): Goalie Robin Lehner, the team announced, will miss the entire 2022-23 season because of hip surgery. Oh, and the Knights won’t get much cap relief, either. Lehner has a $5 million cap hit, but entering today VGK was more than $6.5 million over the cap. Even with Lehner’s money off the books from LTIR, Bill Foley’s team still needs to clear space by opening night.

• Won’t surprise me if Vegas is a lottery team this year. There’s still some real high-end talent there, but morale can’t be too high among those still left there, considering all the guys they’ve lost in the last year or two.
• Here’s more of the story from our Owen Krepps in Vegas (Vegas Hockey Now)
• Cale Makar gets his personal day with the Stanley Cup today. Teammate and fellow Calgary native Logan O’Connor just had his day.
• Nathan MacKinnon’s day with the Cup is Aug. 20. Among other things, there will be a one-hour parade in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the Cup.
• News of the death of 6-year-old Ben Stelter, the superfan kid in Edmonton and good-luck charm to the Oilers who had a rare form of brain cancer, hit the hockey community hard yesterday. It hit the world hard. It rattled me pretty good. What a great kid who who battled hard in an unfair fight and did it with courage and gave joy to so many others. Life isn’t fair. May he be in a better place now. (Edmonton Sun)
• NHL sources tell MHN that goalie Jake Allen is on the NHL trade block, and the Dallas Stars are poking around. Montreal Canadiens trade talk. Maybe Vegas is now too?
• John Tortorella would say otherwise, but it looks like it’s going to be another long year in Philly (Philly Hockey Now)
• NHL insider Kevin Weekes hinted that things are about to go down with the New York Islanders (NYI Hockey Now)
• There has been a good response to a recent 20% off subscription sale. So, I’ll offer it here again: Want a $24.99 full-year price on a Colorado Hockey Now subscription, instead of $29.99? Use the promo code word 5off in the checkout box here to get the deal (checkout box)