The Buffalo Sabres are letting goalie Robin Lehner walk.
General manager Jason Botterill told reporters in Dallas Friday the team will not be extending a qualifying offer to the pending restricted free agent, making him a UFA on July 1 and saving the team roughly $4 million in cap space.
Lehner was one of many Sabres players to have a disappointing 2017-18 campaign. His 14-26-9 record, .908 save percentage and 3.01 goals-against average this past season were significantly worse than his numbers the year prior and he missed time dealing with several injuries.
The 26-year-old Swede was acquired by Buffalo, along with forward David Legwand, three years ago in a trade with the Ottawa Senators. The Sabres gave up the 21st-overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft in order to get Lehner and the Sens used it to take American forward Colin White.
Buffalo’s other goalie, Chad Johnson, is a pending UFA, so adding a new starting goalie will be among the team’s top off-season priorities with 24-year-old netminder Linus Ullmark also expected to vie for the starter’s job next season.
Lehner will join fellow notable goalies Cam Ward, Kari Lehtonen, Jaroslav Halak, Anton Khudobin, Carter Hutton and Jonathan Bernier among others on the open market.
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