A tough stretch of play from the Vegas Golden Knights has now gotten potentially worse with news of an Adin Hill lower-body injury that will keep the club’s No. 1 goaltender on the sidelines for at least three games. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that the 27-year-old’s absence will be long-term in nature (the same can’t be said of Shea Theodore and his upper–body injury).
Had Hill’s injury been worse, the Golden Knights would likely find themselves in some real trouble. That’s how good he has been so far this season. Where the 2022-23 season felt like a revolving door of goaltending options, with Hill, Logan Thompson, Laurent Brossoit and Jonathan Quick all seeing extended time in the crease, this season has belonged to the former Arizona Coyote and San Jose Shark. Not only has he seized the No. 1 job, but he’s put forth a compelling Vezina resume along the way.
As Vegas remains mired in some middling play on account of a struggling offense and Hill contends with what is hopefully a short-term absence, let’s use this opportunity to appreciate his tremendous – and much-needed – start to the 2023-24 campaign.
Taking Advantage of Opportunities
Sometimes, the best moves are the ones you are forced into making.
Had the Golden Knights not lost Robin Lehner to season-ending hip surgery in August 2022, the club would not have needed to surrender a 2024 fourth-round pick to add goaltending insurance, meaning Hill likely would never have arrived. Similarly, they also probably wouldn’t have called on the Comox, British Columbia native in last year’s postseason were it not for an injury to Brossoit in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
With the organization left in a tough spot in both circumstances, Hill has taken full advantage of the opportunity presented. Over 27 games over last year’s regular season, he held his own in riding a 2.50 goals-against average (GAA) and .915 save percentage (SV%) to a 16-7-1 record. When Brossoit’s injury opened the door to a playoff role, Hill rose to the occasion with a 2.17 GAA and a league-best .932 SV% while going 11-4 the rest of the way (from ‘‘How Golden Knights goalie Hill became an unlikely playoff hero,” Las Vegas Sun, 06/01/23).
This season, Hill has taken another significant step forward. Before suffering a lower-body injury against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday (Nov. 30), Hill led the NHL in both GAA (1.87) and SV% (.935) while sporting a 10-2-2 record. When Marc-André Fleury won the franchise’s only Vezina Trophy to date in 2020-21, he had compiled a 1.98 GAA and .928 SV%.
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A Risk Rewarded
Given Hill’s stellar start, it’s easy to forget how risky the proposition of retaining him seemed just a few months ago.
Hill made for a complicated free agency situation, as he remained largely unproven apart from last spring’s Stanley Cup heroism. If you take away his exceptional playoff stretch through May and June, you were left with pretty pedestrian averages of a 2.67 GAA and .910 SV% through just over 100 games. There was also the presence of Thompson, an All-Star last season, and Robin Lehner, whose health status (and $5 million cap hit) remained unclear over the summer.
Ultimately, the Golden Knights front office brought Hill back on a two-year, $9.8 million deal that wasn’t without risk. Had he reverted to his previous mediocre form, it would have made for a difficult dynamic to have a $4.9 million goalie (Hill) backing up a goalie earning less than $1 million (Thompson). Furthermore, GM Kelly McCrimmon could’ve brought back Brossoit, signed a veteran like Frederik Andersen or Joonas Korpisalo or even pursued a trade.
Now, the Golden Knights have at least some degree of security in net at a time when so many teams, most notably their Pacific Division rival Edmonton Oilers, are desperately seeking solutions for stopping pucks.
Hill Found the Right System
The common thread of Hill’s time in Arizona and San Jose was playing in front of bad teams with weak blue lines. While that doesn’t entirely absolve his shaky performance over the early years of his career in which he failed to establish himself as a No. 1 goalie, it does prompt a look beyond the numbers.
In 2021-22, Hill’s lone season with the Sharks, he played in 25 games while backing up James Reimer. Reimer boasted a slightly better SV% (.911 to .906), but Hill carried a 2.66 GAA that represented a significant upgrade on Reimer (2.90) and third-stringer Kaapo Kähkönen (2.86). Curiously, then-Sharks head coach Bob Bougher stayed with Reimer as the starter in spite of Hill’s youth at a time when San Jose was not in playoff contention.
Going back further, Hill played sparingly for some rather terrible Coyotes teams, seeing action in 49 games across four seasons. His numbers (2.79 GAA, .909 SV%) were far from impressive, but compare pretty well with those of Antti Raanta, who was Arizona’s other primary backup to Darcy Kuemper over that run. All three of those goalies have moved on from the desert, but only Hill (who actually hasn’t fully moved on from the desert) has found full, unbridled success.
At this point in his young Golden Knights career, everything has worked out just about perfectly for Hill. There may be better goaltenders out there, but he’s the right one for this team at this moment. Now, let’s hope he gets healthy quickly and back out on the ice.
