WITH LEHNER STILL INJURED VEGAS IS TARGETING TWO RUSSIAN-BORN GOALIES

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Pete Fredericks
February 21, 2022 (7:15 PM)

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The Vegas Golden Knights went all-in on goalie Robin Lehner when they traded three-time Stanley Cup champion goalkeeper Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks in July and now that decision has them forced to make another.

Lehner missed his third consecutive start on Sunday, sidelined due to one of those mysterious "upper body injuries" that NHL teams never seem to give much detail about. On February 15, NHL Insider Frank Seravalli reported the following:

Sources say (the injury to Lehner is) a torn labrum that will eventually require surgery.

The report gave rise to rumors last week that Vegas was interested in bringing Fleury back to Sin City, but GM Kelly McCrimmon shut those down just as quickly as they spread:

There is absolutely no credence to that rumor at all. I wouldn't normally speak (officially) on such things, but there will be so much racket about this, it's important to let people know that's not going to happen

- VGK General Manager Kelly McCrimmon, February 15

Fast forward to this past weekend and it was reported that Lehner skated but did not practice.

An upper-body injury shouldn't preclude a player from skating, though, so the fact that Lehner was on the ice doesn't necessarily mean he's close to returning. In fact, based on what we've heard from a couple of sources this morning, we think it may be the exact opposite.

Seravalli was back at it again this morning, suggesting that the Knight's have inquired about New York Rangers backup, Alexandar Georgiev. With Igor Shesterkin having a Vezina-winning-type season, it isn't hard to imagine the Blueshirts being comfortable moving on from Georgiev.

Too, on the Islanders' beat, James Nichols reports that Vegas has contacted the Isles regarding their Russian-born backup, Semyon Varlamov:

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