Robin Lehner will be the Vegas Golden Knights‘ starting goaltender when the team takes on the Dallas Stars tomorrow, head coach Peter DeBoer announced Sunday.
DeBoer previously said that he intended to rotate between Marc-Andre Fleury and Lehner during the Stanley Cup Qualifiers to determine the team’s starting goalie in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“My plan is both guys are going to play through the round-robin,” DeBoer said. “I think coming off a four-month pause, in order to make sure that we get everybody up to speed and are fair and have all the information at our disposal in the playoffs, that’s the right thing to do.
The plan is consistent with the Golden Knights’ approach in net since acquiring Lehner from the Chicago Blackhawks on Feb. 24. Lehner went 3-0-0 with a 1.67 GAA and .940 save percentage in his three appearances with Vegas prior to the NHL season being paused due to the novel coronavirus.
Fleury, who has been the starter for all 27 playoff games in the team’s history, struggled by his standards this season — going 7-16-5 with a 2.77 GAA and .905 save percentage, his worst numbers as a member of the Golden Knights.
After Vegas acquired Lehner, Fleury went 2-2-0 with a 2.51 GAA and .894 save percentage.
The Golden Knights kick off their round robin play against the the Stars, followed by duels with the St. Louis Blues (Aug. 6) and Colorado Avalanche (Aug. 8) to determine seeding for the Western Conference in the playoffs.
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