Vegas Goaltending Faces Early Test After Hellebuyck Trade to New Jersey

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Connor Hellebuyck’s move from Winnipeg to New Jersey closes the door on one high-profile goaltender becoming available, while leaving a question in Vegas unchanged: can Carter Hart and Adin Hill lift a team save percentage that sits below the NHL average? The Golden Knights are only one point out of first in the Pacific, but their current numbers between the pipes put them behind three division rivals.

There was offseason chatter that Vegas might have interest in Hellebuyck. Nothing from the team pointed to a plan to replace or upgrade its goaltenders. Still, when a netminder with Hellebuyck’s résumé is potentially on the market, a contender would be expected to make at least a check-in. Winnipeg has now sent him to New Jersey in a deal involving NHL players, a highly rated prospect and multiple picks, according to the reported trade details.

Vegas has room to climb

Through 12 games, the Golden Knights have a .885 team save percentage, 19th in the NHL and seven points below the .892 league average. The Pacific standings show how tightly packed the numbers are: San Jose and Seattle lead the division at .896, followed by Los Angeles at .888. Vegas is fourth, just ahead of Edmonton and Anaheim at .883. Calgary and Vancouver are further back at .864 and .863.

Pacific Division team save percentage

• San Jose Sharks — .896
• Seattle Kraken — .896
• Los Angeles Kings — .888
• Vegas Golden Knights — .885
• Edmonton Oilers — .883
• Anaheim Ducks — .883
• Calgary Flames — .864
• Vancouver Canucks — .863

That gap is real, but it needs the context of a short sample and the scoring around the goaltenders. Vegas has scored 46 goals and allowed 36 across those 12 games. The offense has given the team a positive goal differential, yet it hasn’t always provided much margin for error. In back-to-back games, the Knights scored twice and gave up six goals. Hart and Hill have faced four games this season in which Vegas managed two or fewer goals.

That kind of support makes every mistake more costly. A team that scores only twice has little room to recover if it falls behind, and the goaltenders can’t turn a low-scoring night into a win by themselves. The concern in Vegas isn’t simply that the tandem’s percentage is below average; it’s that the club has already had several games where the combination of limited scoring and multiple goals against left no path back.

Career marks offer a useful baseline

Hart and Hill each have a .904 career save percentage since entering the NHL, and both have allowed fewer than three goals per game over their careers. This season, the pair is allowing 2.91 goals per game. The source notes that league save percentage has declined year after year over the past six seasons. That trend may reflect more accurate shooting as well as fewer shots being counted, so comparisons with older seasons need that broader context.

Even with that league-wide change, the Golden Knights have a clear marker to watch: whether Hart and Hill can move their results closer to the current average while keeping the team competitive in a close division race. The season’s early numbers don’t settle what the tandem can do across a full schedule. They do show that Vegas has little room for a prolonged slide, especially in games where the offense supplies only a couple of goals.

The previous regular season ended with Vegas at .879, 17 points below the league average. The postseason offered a stronger counterpoint: Hart posted a .909 save percentage in 22 games during the Golden Knights’ run to the Stanley Cup Final. That run showed how much a goaltender can change the team’s ceiling when his play rises at the right time.

For now, Vegas doesn’t need to chase the kind of blockbuster package Winnipeg received for Hellebuyck to address its standing in the division. It needs Hart and Hill to produce more consistently, and it needs the offense to give them enough support when the save percentage dips. If either goaltender can approach Hart’s postseason level again, the regular-season ranking may matter far less by the time the games carry their greatest weight.

(Image Credit: ESPN.com)

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