The Vegas Golden Knights have signed goaltender Laurent Brossoit to a two-year contract with an AAV of $2.325 million.
The signing comes one day after the Knights traded reigning Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks, a move that was made in order to clear Fleury’s $7 million cap hit.
With this signing as well as the acquisition of Senators winger Evgenii Dadonov, who carries an AAV of $5 million, the Knights have used up most of that $7 million less than an hour into free agency.
The two-year, $4.65 million contract is a nice pay raise for the native of Port Alberni, British Columbia, who has signed one-year contracts worth $1.225 million and $1.5 million over the last two seasons, respectively.
Brossoit is an established backup goalie with 82 games of NHL experience. He has served as Connor Hellebuyck’s backup in Winnipeg for the last three years after playing 14 games spanning three seasons in Edmonton.
Brossoit has played fairly well in that role with the Jets, who have not always given him much help defensively.
Brossoit went 6-6-0 with a 2.42 goals-against average and .918 save percentage with one shutout last season. He saved 4.62 goals above average and 0.42 goals above expected.
The 28-year-old has struggled at times and hasn’t had a winning record since 2018-19, his first year with the Jets, when he went 13-6-2 with a 2.52 goals-against average and .925 save percentage with one shutout. However, playing behind the Vegas blue line should help considerably.
That’s especially true after the Knights officially announced that Alec Martinez will return for three more years at an AAV of $5.25 million.
At this point, the Knights have just over $200,000 in cap space, according to Cap Friendly.
Brossoit was originally drafted by Calgary in the sixth round (No. 164 overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. He has an all-time record of 32-32-5 with a 2.83 career goals-against average and .908 career save percentage.