The Golden Knights have a goalie conundrum. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.
Like all goalie controversies, it’s about a surplus. Unlike skaters, there can be only one goalie a night. So, when a team has two, or in VGK’s upcoming case three, tough decisions must be made and they tend to have a ripple effect on the team at large.
Unlike the previous case the Golden Knights navigated (poorly), this one shouldn’t have as much impact… if handled properly.
The situation at hand is simple in theory but complicated in practice.
Laurent Brossoit is in the process of returning from the injury that ended his season prematurely last year. He missed all of training camp before rejoining the team in practice early in the season. Over the weekend, he was assigned to a conditioning stint with the Henderson Silver Knights indicating that his return is imminent.
Whenever he is ready, which could be as soon as tomorrow, the Golden Knights will have to make roster move to activate him off of IR.
Due to the 23-man roster limit, the Golden Knights cannot simply add him to the roster when he’s ready. Instead, they must clear a roster spot. Here are the ways they can go about doing that.
- Place a player on waivers (Leschyshn, Cotter, Hutton, etc)
- Assign Logan Thompson to the AHL using his waiver-exempt status
- Make a trade
- Waive Brossoit
Option 2 is the only one of the four that does not at least put the Golden Knights at risk of losing a player to another organization. However, it would clearly only be a temporary fix as Bruce Cassidy’s goalie rotation has made it evident that Thompson is the preferred starter.
So, even if that were to happen for a game or two, eventually as long as all three goalies are healthy, they’d have to make another move.
Here’s where the Silver Knights and their miserable performance comes in. Henderson currently sits in the cellar of the entire AHL with a record of 2-9-0. They’ve allowed 41 goals while scoring just 25, and they are riding a three-game losing streak in which they’ve been outscored 16-4.