Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner and his wife Donya owe creditors $27.3 million, according to a bankruptcy filing released Friday. Here’s what you need to know:
- The new filing shows a large percentage of that debt is tied to his solar company SolarCode, which is being sued by a lender for $3.9 million over the alleged failure to repay a business loan.
- Lehner also lists assets totaling about $5 million in the filing, most of which are tied to his home in Las Vegas.
- Lehner and his wife filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection late last year, joining a large number of athletes who have done so over the last few decades.
Backstory
Lehner, who has estimated career earnings through 2026 of $43 million, according to Spotrac, had listed liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million, and assets of $1 million to $10 million in his original Chapter 7 petition. The new filing gives more details, including listing all his creditors.
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Lehner, who is on a five-year, $25 million contract with the Golden Knights, joins NHL star Evander Kane, who filed Chapter 7 in January 2021. Kane’s process is still ongoing. They are hardly alone. High-profile bankruptcies have included Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Michael Vick, Vince Young, Warren Sapp, Antoine Walker, Kenny Anderson, Lenny Dykstra; and in the NHL — Jack Johnson, Darren McCarty and Bryan Trottier.
Lehner’s top creditors listed in the new filing are Aliya Growth Fund LLC – Series X ($4.75 million), Deutsche Bank Luxembourg ($2.8 million), South River Capital ($2.78 million), Eclipse Service, Inc. ($3.9 million), and Taurus LLC ($1.5 million).
The original petition also notes Lehner owns RL Exotics, a reptile farm in Plano, Mo., “which is an operating business with three employees, and which requires reptiles to be maintained and fed.” According to reports in 2017, Lehner agreed to pay a reptile breeder Ben Renick $1.2 million for his “snakes, ball pythons and anacondas.” Renick’s wife was later convicted of murdering her husband, a case that in part shined a light on Lehner’s reptile fascination.
In Friday’s new filing, Lehner assigns “unknown” to the value of RL Exotics, LLC, as well as SolarCode.
The Golden Knights, the NHL and NHLPA are also listed as creditors.
Lehner hasn’t played since April 2022, and has already been ruled out for the remainder of this season after undergoing surgery on both hips in the offseason.
The 31-year-old veteran is 39-21-4 with a .910 save percentage for the Golden Knights since Vegas traded for him in April of 2020. Lehner is currently on the long-term injured reserve, and has two years left on his contract which carries an average annual value of $5 million.
(Photo: Sergei Belski / USA Today)