Goaltending plays a huge part in determining the success of an NHL team, and with the Los Angeles Kings announcing the re-signing of goaltender prospect Erik Portillo, the big question of where the Kings’ goaltending situation stands could be a step closer to being answered. Portillo signed a three-year contract with an average annual value (AAV) of $783,333. The first year is a two-way deal, while the last two years will be a one-way deal.
Kings’ Goaltending Has Been a Question Mark Since Quick’s Exit
From the 2008-09 season until the 2017-18 season, goaltending was one thing the Kings rarely had to worry about. Ten seasons is quite a long time for a team to have consistent elite goaltending from one player, but it’s not that surprising when the goaltender was Jonathan Quick. Having a goaltender like Quick is not easy to come by, and his ability to be one of the most consistent and dialled-in goaltenders for multiple seasons played a huge role in the Kings’ success during the 2010s.
Quick’s last couple of seasons with Los Angeles were rough, ultimately resulting in his departure. Although fans expressed their displeasure with the move, it was a business decision general manager Rob Blake felt he had to make for the betterment of the franchise. Not only did Quick’s departure ruffle some feathers, but it also raised the question of what the future of goaltending would look like in LA now that the one who carried this team on his back for so many years was no longer there.
That question is still very much present as the Kings have yet to be able to fill that void, rotating through many different goaltenders over the past few seasons. Cal Petersen, Phoenix Copley, Joonas Korpisalo, Cam Talbot, and David Rittich were all given their shots, but none of them were the answer.
For this upcoming season, Rittich will be returning as the backup, but the rotation will continue, this time with Darcy Kuemper leading the way instead of Talbot. With Blake opting to move on from Talbot, acquiring Kuemper was a way for the Kings to fill that starting role. At the same time, it gave him the ability to end the Pierre-Luc Dubois experiment in LA. While it was a replacement, it wasn’t necessarily an improvement. Yes, Kuemper is a Stanley Cup champion, but the numbers over the past three seasons tell us that other than Kuemper being a few years younger than Talbot, there isn’t that much of a difference.
Let’s say that Kuemper comes out and has a terrific debut season in LA, and he ends up exceeding expectations. Maybe the Kings have found their short-term fix? The truth of the matter is that Kuemper would only be a short-term fix. He is 34 years old and nearing the final stages of his career.
With Portillo re-signing along with his performance in both the NCAA and American Hockey League (AHL) over the past few seasons, there is now an injection of youth in the pipeline that has shown promise and could potentially be the answer to the issues the Kings have had with goaltending.
What’s to Like About Portillo
There are a few reasons for Kings fans to be excited about the 6-foot-6 netminder. While numbers and analytics don’t tell the full story in hockey, for goaltenders, they tell you a whole lot. For Portillo, his numbers have been very good for a while. In any season in which he has played 25-plus games, the Swede has yet to finish with a save percentage (SV%) lower than .908.
In 2019-20, Portillo played his first year of hockey in North America with the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the United States Hockey League (USHL) and was named Goaltender of the Year. He then played three years of Division I hockey in the NCAA with the University of Michigan. Portillo was only given five starts in his freshman year with Michigan but took the reins as the starter for the next two seasons, posting a .926 SV% in 2021-22 and a .908 SV% in 2022-23. Portillo made the jump to the AHL last season, where his stellar play continued with the Ontario Reign. He finished the season with a .918 SV% and a 2.50 goals-against average through 38 games played.
As much of a positive as this is for the Kings, it’s an even bigger one for Portillo. Let’s not forget that he was a Buffalo Sabres prospect before the Kings acquired him for a third-round pick back in 2023. The path to securing an NHL job becomes much easier for Portillo now, with virtually no competition as opposed to having to battle with Devon Levi and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
The Kings now have something to look forward to in the goaltending department, and if the 23-year-old can continue to shine in his second season with the Reign, there is no reason why he would not be given a look at some point this season and then ultimately be given the opportunity to try and make the NHL roster in 2025-26.
