Just a day after sending reigning Vezina winner Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks, the Vegas Golden Knights have found their new backup to Robin Lehner, signing Laurent Brossoit to a two-year deal with an AAV of $2.325 million.
Brossoit a Solid, Sound Goalie
Brossoit is a positionally sound, big-and-boring, highly-dependable goalie who has been one of the NHL’s better backups in recent seasons. In his three seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, he provided solid relief to Vezina-winner Connor Hellebuyck when called upon to provide it. In 2020-21, he appeared in 14 games (11 starts) and posted a 6-6-0 record, 2.42 GAA, .918 SV%, and one shutout.
He originally signed with the Jets as a free agent prior to the 2018-19 season and signed one-year extensions before both of the past two seasons. In his trio of campaigns in Winnipeg, he posted a 25-19-3 record, 2.75 GAA, .913 SV%, and two shutouts.
Jets’ Other Priorities Meant Brossoit Found a Greener Pasture
With the Jets only having $12 million in cap space after making two major additions to their much-maligned blue line in Brenden Dillon and Nate Schmidt — and still needing to sign RFAs Andrew Copp and Neal Pionk — they couldn’t afford nearly $2.5 million on a backup goalie. They signed Eric Comrie to a one-year deal worth $750,000 yesterday.
Related: Jets Finally Upgrade Defence with Dillon Trade
The Jets’ cap crunch was the Golden Knights’ gain in this case, as they had room after shedding the Fleury contract to both sign Brossoit and trade for Evgenii Dadonov. He will undoubtedly be the number-two man behind Lehner, who had the crease stolen from him by Fleury last season but still has four years left on his contract that carries a $5 million AAV.
Brossoit, 28, was originally drafted in the sixth round by the Calgary Flames in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. Hailing from Port Alberni, B.C., Brossoit has appeared in 82 games over seven seasons (24 with the Edmonton Oilers prior to joining the Jets.)