The Golden Knights will once again enter the season with a pair of fully capable goaltenders. Adin Hill will be installed as the clear starter and after trading Logan Thompson, VGK signed Ilya Samsonov to step in as the backup.
Hill got off to a torrid start last season before a few injuries and a tough month derailed a Vezina bid. Samsonov had a bit of a nightmare in Toronto posting a below .900 save percentage and eventually being benched in the first round of the playoffs.
Behind a stellar defense, as the Golden Knights are again expected to have, both goaltenders should be more than strong enough to succeed.
The expectation, based on how the Golden Knights and Bruce Cassidy have run things for the past few seasons is that VGK will go with something close to a 60/40 split. Hill is the designated starter, but it’s unlikely he will play many more than two or three games in a row while both he and Samsonov are healthy.
The next question becomes, who should play against who? That’s where the splits may come in to help.
First, here are Adin Hill’s numbers against each of the other 31 teams in the NHL.
Adin had a rough outing in Ottawa, a game in which he got hurt, as well as a few tough games in Boston and Columbus. In the division, he’s been stellar against his former team, the Sharks, as well as Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Vancouver.
Now, for Sansonov’s splits.
Ilya has been nearly perfect in a couple of games against the Kraken. He’s also been awesome against Winnipeg, Nashville, and Calgary among others. Samsonov has not succeeded against the best team in the division, the Edmonton Oilers.
Of course, these numbers are with a bunch of different teams and against teams in wildly different situations than they’ll be in this year. But, sometimes guys just have another team’s number and there’s a real argument to try and play to it early.
If I’m mapping out the first few games, Hill is getting Opening Night, stick with him against St. Louis, give Samsonov Anaheim, back to Hill for Washington. They are both bad against Tampa, so go with Samsonov there, then Hill for his consistent dominance against the Panthers.
Really, all that truly matters is Samsonov gets the nod against Ottawa. Though, that has much more to do with these Instagram comments than career splits against the Sens.
