The Multiple Teams Showing Interest in Golden Knights Goaltenders.

The Golden Knights are in somewhat of an unusual place moving into next season as both of its goaltenders are a year away from being unrestricted free agents.  To that end, ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports (Twitter link) that teams are showing interest in both Adin Hill and Logan Thompson.

Both netminders are still relatively inexperienced at the NHL level, all things considered.  Hill has played parts of seven seasons but has just 123 career regular season starts under his belt between Arizona, San Jose, and Vegas.  Thompson, meanwhile, has even less, with just 95 starts across portions of four years.

Hill played an integral role in the Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup win last year, helping earn him a two-year, $9.8MM contract immediately after to avoid his reaching the open market last summer.

The 28-year-old saw his averages decrease a touch this season although he still managed a 2.71 GAA with a .909 SV% in 35 appearances, both above the league average.

He was virtually in a time-sharing position with Thompson, who made 42 starts in 2023-24.  His stats were practically identical to Hill’s, clocking in at 2.70 and .908 respectively.   The 27-year-old got the nod to start the playoffs but ceded the net to Hill for the final three games as they lost out to Dallas in the opening round.

It’s worth mentioning that Thompson is one of the biggest values in the league between the pipes.  His AAV checks in at $766.7K, below the minimum pay.

With Vegas being quite close to the salary cap once again this summer, they’d be hard-pressed to be persuaded to part Thompson knowing that whoever replaces him will cut into their already restricted freedom.

With their salary structure, it’s hard to imagine Vegas being able to afford to maintain both goalies beyond the upcoming season.  They should be able to afford to maintain one of them but combined, they’d likely cost more than what GM Kelly McCrimmon can reasonably afford to allocate to that position.

With that in mind, it makes reasonable that teams are sniffing about to see which one might become available, if one is made available at all.

With Jacob Markstrom already having been moved, Linus Ullmark is the next-biggest name in play among NHL netminders and there are other teams that could be on the hunt for aid between the pipes.  As a result, it might be an exciting trade market for netminders in the coming days.