How Worried Are The Vegas Golden Knights’ About Their Goaltending?

The Vegas Golden Knights were given a major curveball when it was announced goaltender Robin Lehner would miss the entire 2022-2023 NHL season with an injury. Vegas did have Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit. Thompson did have an impressive showing in his “audition” as a number one starter last season.

The problem is Brossoit has been dealing with an injury of his own as well. Brossoit underwent a “medical procedure” on March 15th and hasn’t played since. Adding to the mystery is that the team hasn’t disclosed the nature of his injury.

With Brossoit’s status up in the air, Vegas traded for Adin Hill from the San Jose Sharks, sending a fourth-round pick to their division rival. Vegas had previously signed Michael Hutchinson, but that seems more like a worst-case scenario insurance policy, kind of like the New Jersey Devils did last season when they signed Jon Gilles. Hill is the much more stable option between the two.

Vegas has a few notable goaltending names on the injured list. Their trade for Adin Hill from the San Jose Sharks seemed like a move out of desperation.

Of course, Vegas put out the press statement that Hill will “compete” with Brossoit for the backup job, but let’s read between the lines. Just the day prior Vegas General Manager Kelly McCrimmon didn’t sound too optimistic. McCrimmon said Vegas would have to wait until Brossoit arrived at the end of the month to evaluate his injury. Did Brossoit come earlier than expected? Or was it bad enough Vegas knew that had to make another move?

Goaltending depth is a great thing to have, and the rebuild Sharks would be happy to get a mid-round pick for what was their third string goalie. The telling sign here is that Vegas overpaid. No, we’re not saying that Adin isn’t worth a mid-round pick but we are saying it was an expensive price for Vegas. In their short history, Vegas had dealt away a lot of their prospects and draft capital. Every little bit they had helps, but they must have felt really desperate to give up a fourth round pick.

Brossoit and Hill had nearly identical workloads last year with 25 and 24 games respectively. Hill, in addition to being the healthier of two obviously, had slightly better stats. Hill posted a 2.66 goals against record and a .906 save percentage compared to Brossoit’s 2.90 goals against average. Not a huge difference, but it inspires a bit more confidence for a 1A and 1b pairing of Thompson and Hill instead of Thompson and Brossoit. Maybe the work will be just a bit more evenly divided.

Some NHL trades are born out of team’s being opportunistic. The perfect example is the famous Taylor Hall “one for one” trade to the New Jersey Devils. If any team here was opportunistic, it was San Jose. Vegas needed a “plan c” and likely paid a bit more than another team would have for Hill’s services. Besides, there were no indications Hill might be on the move. Even if he was their third string, the Sharks had no rush to move him.

It’s almost guaranteed that Vegas’s tandem to start the season will be Thompson and Hill. When Brossoit comes back remains to be seen. Then again, we wouldn’t be surprised if he’s heading for a vacation on the LTIR.