Robin Lehner is committed to the Buffalo Sabres, even without the security of a long-term contract.
The goaltender signed a one-year, $4-million contract that will keep him in the Sabres' crease for at least the 2017-18 season, at the end of which he'll once again become a restricted free agent.
In an interview with WGR 550 in Buffalo on Tuesday, Lehner admitted signing for a longer term would have been nice, but in his mind, he's in it for the long haul.
"At the end of the day, I think my decision the whole time is I want to be in Buffalo," Lehner said. "I like this city a lot. I want to keep building with this team. I'm happy I got another year here. One year or longer term - long term would be nice. One year is fine too.
"I'm confident in my abilities to be a good goalie in this league. If it's one year on paper, that's fine. I'm obviously a restricted free agent one more year after this. I'll take it year-by-year, try to focus on the season, and we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens next year."
Lehner was acquired by the Sabres in 2015 with a view to installing him as the No. 1 goalie coming out of a serious rebuild. That process has not gone as planned, leading to the firing of general manager Tim Murray and head coach Dan Bylsma at the end of last season, both of whom have since been replaced by Jason Botterill and Phil Housley, respectively.
Lehner has spoken to both new hires and is excited about Housley's more defensive-minded approach. His hope is that the changes on and off the ice will benefit the team, and, by extension, his contract situation moving forward.
"Again, I'm not going to approach it to have a good season to get my long-term deal ... obviously, there's a business aspect to the game too, but I think team success kind of leads to personal success here.
"We talked a lot last year about a lot of different areas that we needed to improve on – personal and as a team. It's like a little puzzle. There's a lot of pieces you've got to get in place here and I think piece by piece it's getting better. But we'll just have to keep working and see where it takes us."
In two seasons with the Sabres, Lehner has posted a record of 28-35-13 with a .921 save percentage.
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