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Vegas Golden Knights Acquire Adin Hill from San Jose Sharks

Posted on by Tom Urtz Jr.

The Vegas Golden Knights have acquired Adin Hill from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick.

This move likely suggests that Laurent Brossoit won’t be ready to start the season, and that management doesn’t want to rely on Michael Hutchinson to be the backup netminder.

Hill has a career record of 29-32-5 with five shutouts, a 2.74 goals against average, a .908 save percentage, a 0.94 goals saved above average, and a -8.29 goals saved above expected per Evolving-Hockey.

Last year was his first and only with the Sharks, and he went 10-11-1 with a 2.66 goals against average and a .906 save percentage while posting a -0.63 goals saved above average, and a -6.91 goals saved above expected.

Here’s a visual chart via the folks at Evolving-Hockey, and this highlights how Hill was pretty average at 5v5, but was below average whenever the Sharks were killing penalties.

The year before, with the Arizona Coyotes, Hill played on a worse team and had slightly better results in context.

And in the year before that, in a smaller sample, the same was true for Hill.

When you put the last three years together it appears you get a pretty league average goalie that didn’t have a lot of support around him, so the thinking from the Golden Knights could be that on a much stronger team Hill will have a fighting chance as a backup to spot Logan Thompson.

Hill has also spent 139 games at the AHL level, and has a career record of 67-51-16 with a 2.12 goals against average, and a .922 save percentage. He would have to clear waivers, but Hill could ultimately become a decent option for the Henderson Silver Knights once he’s no longer needed at the NHL level.

Overall, this is a low-risk, and potential high upside move. Hill has a mixed bag of results, but represents an upgrade over Hutchinson in the interim. The Golden Knights are in a tough spot, and in the event Thompson can’t hold down the starting job, they certainly will have to reassess their options.

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