Chicago Blackhawks: Robin Lehner makes them look bad

The Chicago Blackhawks don’t look great after Robin Lehner signed his extension with Vegas.

The Chicago Blackhawks might have a new goalie in between the pipes during the 2020-21 season but that hasn’t been determined yet. There have been rumors about a contract extension for Corey Crawford but it all remains unclear. One thing that is clear is that they mishandled the Robin Lehner situation. The Hawks couldn’t get anything worked out with him so they traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights. Now, he signed a very team-friendly contract extension with them and the Hawks don’t look very good as a result.

It is an extension that carries a cap hit of five million dollars a year for five years. That is an outstanding contract for a goalie of his caliber. He will give you Vezina caliber goaltending as long as he stays healthy so this contract really is awesome. Most of the goalies that are similar in terms of numbers are on way more lucrative contracts.

This is a contract that the Blackhawks could have absolutely made work if both parties wanted to. If it comes out that they weren’t willing to give him that sort of term then they will really look bad. The only thing that might save them is the idea that Lehner might have not wanted to play in Chicago that long because of where the organization is at.

Vegas truly has a chance to win the Stanley Cup every year with their current group. They attack you in waves and make like on their goaltenders easy on most nights. The Hawks give up a lot of high danger scoring chances with their current group and are a long way off from being a contender again. Anyone with no bias would rather play for the Golden Knights right now than the Blackhawks.

With that said, that is no excuse for letting him go. It is the Blackhawks’ own fault that they aren’t that good anymore. If they would have had better asset management, they might still be able to get something out of the second half of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane‘s careers. Instead, they let Lehner go and he signed a team-friendly deal with them. It is a bad look but now they need to move forward and figure out what they are going to do in their own net.