Vegas Golden Knights

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner has been accused of fraud by a major lender in his bankruptcy case.

Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic reported creditor Aliya Growth Fund is seeking the $4.75 million loan it paid to Lehner six weeks before his bankruptcy filing to be repaid rather than be part of the Chapter 7 filing.

The company accuses Lehner of fraud on several occasions, claiming he and his wife, Donya, obtained the money "by making materially false and misleading representations." Aliya also alleges the couple failed to fully disclose its debts in the original loan application.

The Lehners filed for bankruptcy in December, claiming $5.2 million of assets and $27.3 million of liabilities.

Lehner is in the third year of a five-year, $25 million contract but currently on long-term injured reserve because a hip injury. The team announced in August he would miss the entire 2022-23 season.

Most of Lehner's debt is tied to SolarCode, his family's company that is being sued for $3.9 million over an unpaid business loan.

The Vegas Golden Knights have been busy trying to improve their roster ahead of the NHL trade deadline, which is set for Friday at 3 p.m. ET. They acquired center Teddy Blueger in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, then traded for Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Jonathan Quick on Thursday.

Even though time is running out to make moves, the Golden Knights may not be done. They still have $2.9 million in available cap space, per CapFriendly. So Vegas has a bit of financial flexibility if it hopes to work out another trade.

And it's quite possible the Golden Knights are going to do just that.

According to TSN's Chris Johnston, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman James van Riemsdyk is a player who is "on the radar" for Vegas. A 14-year NHL veteran, Van Riemsdyk has spent the past five seasons in Philadelphia. But his time there could soon be coming to an end.

"It is believed he will be moved by the Flyers by the deadline," Johnston said on TSN's Insider Trading.

However, the Golden Knights may not be alone in their potential pursuit of Van Riemsdyk. Johnston also reported that the Winnipeg Jets could be in the mix.

"There's been some intel to connect those two as well," Johnston said.

Vegas should do what it takes to ensure that Van Riemsdyk doesn't end up in Winnipeg, though. The Golden Knights are a top Stanley Cup contender, as they're in second in the Western Conference with 78 points. And they need to make their roster as deep as possible as they try to end the season by winning a championship.

In 41 games this season, the 33-year-old Van Riemsdyk has proved he's still a solid player. He has nine goals and 14 assists, along with an even plus-minus rating.

Even if Van Riemsdyk isn't at the peak of his career, he would be a solid addition to the defensive line for Vegas. The Golden Knights rank ninth-best in the league in goals allowed (171), so there's still a bit of room for improvement.

The interest in Van Riemsdyk picked up as other players available on the trade market were moved earlier this week. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported on Tuesday that the Flyers were "getting more calls" regarding Van Riemsdyk at that point.

So it wouldn't be surprising if Van Riemsdyk is no longer in Philadelphia by the time the trade deadline passes. And it makes quite a bit of sense for Vegas to land him.

The time is right for the Golden Knights to go all in and attempt to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. The asking price for Van Riemsdyk may not be too high, so it's the right type of additional move that Vegas should make.

One day after being traded by the Los Angeles Kings, Jonathan Quick is on the move again.

The Vegas Golden Knights announced they have acquired Quick from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Michael Hutchinson and a seventh-round draft pick in 2025.

WELL WELL WELL…

We have acquired Jonathan Quick from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Michael Hutchinson and a 2025 seventh-round pick!#VegasBorn | #TheGoldenAge pic.twitter.com/ew53N5rvsr

— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 2, 2023

The Kings announced Wednesday they acquired Vladislav Gavrikov and Joonas Korpisalo from Columbus for Quick, a conditional 2023 first-round draft pick and a 2024 third-round pick.

Los Angeles' decision to trade Quick, who spent his entire 16-year career with the franchise, was met with some skepticism. The Athletic's Eric Stephens called the deal one of the "iciest" in franchise history.

Seravalli noted Quick wasn't too thrilled to be traded by the only franchise he's ever known.

To say Jonathan Quick is unhappy with the trade, I'm told, is "an understatement."

The entire #LAKings team was a bit down after the game, a win, and you could understandably see it in Anze Kopitar's face after a 4-goal night.

Tough deal, Kings trading a franchise legend.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 1, 2023

Quick was the face of Kings hockey for nearly two decades. He was the starting goalie for their two Stanley Cup-title teams in 2012 and 2014, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy for the 2012 playoff run.

Amid his struggles early this season, Quick lost playing time to Pheonix Copley. The combination of his age (37) and impending free agency likely made it easier for the Kings to move on from a franchise stalwart.

It never made sense for the Blue Jackets to keep Quick if they could find a trade partner before Friday's 3 p.m. ET. Their 46 points are the fewest in the NHL, and they are looking toward the future.

The Golden Knights needed goalie depth with Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit on injured reserve with lower body injuries.

Head coach Bruce Cassidy told reporters Wednesday that Thompson, an All-Star this season, is "nowhere near being on the ice."

Quick hasn't been the same player he was at his peak. He has a 3.50 goals-against average and .876 save percentage in 31 appearances for the Kings.

This is a chance for Quick to get some revenge against his former team. The Golden Knights are the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and have a two-point lead over the Kings for the top spot in the Pacific Division.

The UMass product had a 2.72 goals-against average and .905 save percentage in the previous three years. If he can play anywhere close to that level down the stretch, Vegas will be set up well for a deep playoff run.

The Vegas Golden Knights have acquired Ivan Barbashev from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for prospect Zach Dean.

🔄 The Golden Knights have acquired forward Ivan Barbashev from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for forward Zach Dean. Welcome to Vegas, Ivan! #VegasBorn | #TheGoldenAgehttps://t.co/XhFJXDKOwS

— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 26, 2023

Darren Dreger of TSN first reported the deal.

The 27-year-old has posted 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists) in 59 games during the 2022-23 campaign.

While Barbashev hasn't matched last year's career season, when he scored 60 points in 81 games, he's a solid two-way option who should bolster the Golden Knight's third line. He can play on the wing or at center and is solid on both the power play and penalty-killing units.

Former NHL scout and current Sportsnet analyst Jason Bukala offered the following scouting report on the veteran:

The St. Louis Blues forward plays an energy game and has the ability to contribute more than secondary offense. He has the skill set to be used in all situations, and he can play the wing and the middle. Barbashev is the kind of player who can open up ice for his linemates with his tenacity. He scored 26 goals and 34 assists last season, which was a career high. I'm not sure he's a 60-plus point player, but he is better than (the totals) he's posted this year.

He had spent the entirety of his seven-year career with the Blues up until this point. With unrestricted free agency pending, and the Blues fairly well out of playoff contention at this point, a divorce seemed inevitable.

The Blues have undergone a fire sale, dealing Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola to the New York Rangers and Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Dean, 20, was selected with the No. 30 overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft and has posted 49 overall points (24 goals and 25 assists) with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Gatineau Olympiques.

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner and his wife, Donya, claimed debts of $27.3 million in their recent bankruptcy filing, according to The Athletic's Daniel Kaplan.

The couple filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Dec. 30, listing debts of up to $50 million. The step came after a company in Wisconsin sued Lehner and his father, Michael, for missed loan repayments. The 31-year-old has also failed to make payments on a rare snake collection he purchased in 2017 for $1.2 million.

Kaplan provided a more detailed breakdown of the Lehners' creditors. He owes $4.75 million to Aliya Growth Fund LLC and $3.9 million to Eclipse Service, Inc., the two biggest creditors listed.

Jeff Burbank of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the Lehners claimed assets totaling $5.1 million, the largest of which was their Las Vegas home ($3.2 million).

Lehner is in the third year of a five-year, $25 million contract with the Golden Knights. The Swede underwent season-ending hip surgery in August, ruling him out for the entirety of 2022-23 before he made a single appearance.

As the Seattle Kraken approached the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft, a near-unanimous narrative formed: This was not going to look anything like the Vegas Golden Knights' induction into the league.

The 2018 Golden Knights marked the first instance of NHL expansion since the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild became franchises No. 29 and 30 in 2000. That's an entire era of hockey in which the game changed in a number of ways.

This was unprecedented territory for NHL general managers. There was no blueprint to follow. Most decisions made would come with externalities that were tough to anticipate. It's not a surprise that Vegas benefitted from a number of mistakes made by others. Vegas not only built a team superior to past expansion teams, but they managed to make it all the way to the Stanley Cup final in their first season.

Seattle would not benefit in the same way. Four years later, teams had knowledge of what to do and, really, what not to do. Don't overpay to protect certain players, and trust the expansion team would hesitate to select players with big contracts.

Kraken GM Ron Francis did not hold back in tempering expectations for Seattle out of the gate.

"Vegas did a good job taking advantage of the rules and sort of everyone's lack of experience in that environment. Last time where GMs were more willing to, in a sense, overpay to protect certain assets, this time they learned from that and they weren't willing to make the mistakes that they made last time," he told reporters.

The Kraken finished with the third-worst record in the league in their inaugural campaign. Now in their second season, Seattle has found its bearings. The Dave Hakstol-led team sits fourth in the Western Conference by points percentage and just two points behind Vegas (with one game in hand) for first place in the Pacific Division.

Francis had to take a more meandering path than Vegas did, but the Kraken's introduction to the NHL suddenly does not look so different.

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The Sum is Greater Than its Parts

During Vegas' inaugural season, leading scorer William Karlsson finished tied for 23rd among NHL forwards with 78 points. He was nobody's idea of an NHL superstar. Fifteen of the other 30 NHL teams had at least one forward who finished with equal or better production. Yet the Golden Knights scored the fifth-most goals in the NHL. Jonathan Marchessault (T-29th), David Perron (T-44th), Reilly Smith (T-66th), and Erik Haula (T-78th) trailed behind Karlsson. Vegas were one of only four teams with five forwards among the NHL's top 90 by points.

Seattle are also compensating for a lack of high-end talent with across-the-board contributions. André Burakovsky leads the team with 37 points in 44 games; he ranks joint-65th among NHL forwards by points. But the Kraken are the only team in the NHL with 10 forwards with 20-plus points this season; Boston and Calgary are next in line with eight.

The sum result? The Kraken rank fourth in the entire NHL in goals scored and first at even strength. Defensemen Vince Dunn (more on him later) and Justin Schultz have contributed significantly to the cause as well, but Seattle's strength at forward lies within its immense depth rather than one or two All-Star talents.

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Frugal Finds

The biggest explanation for how Vegas found success so early is that other teams self-sabotaged and threw talent at general manager George McPhee's feet. Marchessault, Smith, Karlsson and Shea Theodore are among the players other GMs inexplicably gift-wrapped.

Seattle was never going to benefit equally. Teams were better prepared this time around, albeit Francis was able to bring in quality players such as Jordan Eberle (NYI), Yanni Gourde (TBL) and Carson Soucy (MIN).

But Francis did come away with some steals, too. The St. Louis Blues boxed themselves in with no-trade clauses afforded to defensemen Torey Krug and Justin Faulk, so they had to expose Dunn, who is now producing at a 16-goal, 62-point pace at 26 years old. It was a massive blunder by the Blues.

Elsewhere, Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ron Hextall chose to protect winger Kasperi Kapanen and moved Jared McCann to Toronto. Toronto then left McCann exposed in order to protect Alex Kerfoot. In Toronto's case, it's a more defendable decision. For Pittsburgh, not so much. McCann scored 27 goals last season and leads Seattle again with 22 and is on a 44-goal pace. Kapanen, meanwhile, is frequently a subject of trade speculation due to poor play.

These frugal finds are not limited to the expansion draft. The Columbus Blue Jackets were thrilled to land Johnny Gaudreau in free agency, but it caused a salary-cap crunch that forced them to trade quality two-way winger Oliver Bjorkstrand for third- and fourth-round draft picks.

The Washington Capitals tossed Daniel Sprong to Seattle as a warm body in the 2022 deadline move that sent depth winger Marcus Johansson to Washington. Sprong, 25, has always been a high-end offensive talent but could never find consistency. With his fourth NHL team, the Dutch winger is finally figuring it out. Despite playing limited minutes, Sprong is third on the team with 15 goals and has 13 assists.

The most recent example of Seattle's analytics department succeeding is with the acquisition of Eeli Tolvanen. The 23-year-old was drafted in the first round by Nashville in 2017 and then set the KHL ablaze, but it did not translate into success with Nashville. Tolvanen's value is mainly derived from his elite shot. Yet he tallied just 23 over 122 regular season games for Nashville while he yo-yo'd up and down the lineup. Having finally given up on him, Nashville placed him on waivers on December 11. The Kraken scooped him up, and the Finnish winger sits with five goals and two assists already through 10 games in Seattle.

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What is Next?

Making the playoffs is the primary goal in Seattle. Following that, if the team wants to truly mimic Vegas' early ascent to contention, then reinforcements will be mandatory. As good as Seattle has been, they are the beneficiaries of the Hockey Gods siding with them through the first half of the season. Per Evolving Hockey, the Kraken are 19th in the NHL by expected-goals percentage; based on the shot quantity and quality within their games, Seattle would be expected to have both 136 goals for and against. The league's best shooting percentage (12.3) is thrusting them to the top of the standings. Will that last? Not with the status quo.

So Francis must tap into the final aspect of his build that has lined up with Vegas'; draft pick excess. As part of all of the expansion-draft deals, Vegas gained a ton of draft picks. Seattle didn't have the same luck, but they have accumulated their own arsenal in a different way. With the playoffs out of sight thanks in part to the underwhelming expansion draft, Francis traded six players at the 2022 deadline, most prominently Mark Giordano. For his efforts, he hauled in 10 draft picks.

Aside from all of their natural draft picks in the 2023 and 2024 drafts, Seattle is approaching the trading deadline with an additional two second-round picks, plus added selections in Rounds 3, 4, 6 and 7. Cap Friendly currently estimates that the Kraken will have roughly $3.6 million in cap space with which to work at the deadline. The logical dumping of pending UFA Joonas Donskoi's $3.9 million cap hit would open up more. Simply put, Seattle should, and will, generate significant buzz. Multiple trades to reinforce the ranks seem inevitable.

Maybe the most important outcome of the Golden Knights' introduction to the NHL was a long-term product. Vegas has made it to the semifinals (or better) in three of its five seasons and looks to be a playoff contender yet again.

Seattle may not have captured lightning in a bottle initially, but the organization appears on course for a similar long-term trajectory.

Las Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner and his wife, Donya Lehner, filed for bankruptcy in Nevada in late 2022, citing up to $50 million in debts and only as much as $10 million in assets.

Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the couple filed Chapter 7 paperwork Dec. 30, months after a company sued them for $3.9 million as it looked to recoup a business loan.

Lehner has made $32 million in his NHL career in salary. The bankruptcy filing estimated the couple have between $1 million and $10 million in assets.

Lehner signed a five-year, $25 million in 2020 and is due $10.5 million the next two seasons, in addition to his remaining 2022-23 salary. He has not played this season due to a hip injury.

The bankruptcy filing includes several details on the Lehners' financial dealings, many of which feature the company Solarcode. The company has business dealings in Arizona and Nevada, among other states, and lists Robin Lehner and his father, Michael, as principal members.

The Lehner family also owns a reptile farm in Plato, Missouri, that features several exotic snakes. Lehner purchased the snakes for $1.2 million in 2017.

The Seattle Kraken are the NHL's youngest franchise, but they are set to host one of the league's marquee events next season.

The NHL announced Monday the Kraken will welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to Seattle for the 2024 Winter Classic at T-Mobile Park.

The #WinterClassic is heading to Seattle 👀

The Kraken and Golden Knights will face-off outdoors in 2024 ❄️ pic.twitter.com/pMzplmPv63

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 2, 2023

The Kraken are in their second season as a franchise and have never hosted an outdoor game before. The Golden Knights, who are the league's second-newest franchise after being founded in 2017, played an outdoor game during the 2020-21 season at Lake Tahoe against the Colorado Avalanche.

"We're pretty excited," Kraken CEO Tod Lewieke said in a statement. "I think in some regards these things we hoped would happen, these are the things we dreamed would happen. But it's a great honor that in our third season, we're going to host, really, an international event."

Per ESPN's Ryan S. Clark, the NHL had discussed playing an outdoor game in Seattle for "some time," but the venue was a point of debate. Clark noted that the "longstanding belief" was the league was deciding between T-Mobile Park, Husky Stadium at the University of Washington and Lumen Field, which is home to the Seattle Seahawks.

T-Mobile Park, the Seattle Mariners' home, will be the latest MLB park to host an outdoor game, joining Fenway Park, Busch Stadium, Citi Field, Coors Field, Citizens Bank Park, Dodger Stadium, Nationals Park, Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium.

The Kraken wasted little time volunteering themselves as a viable host to a notable NHL event. In September, team COO Victor de Bonis told ESPN that the Kraken informed the league of their interest to host an outdoor game, the NHL All-Star Game and/or the NHL draft.

"We've always expressed interest in doing these events as we start a new franchise and build our fan base here," de Bonis said at the time.

This year's Winter Classic is being played between the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins at Fenway.