Eight Days to Opening Night, and Vegas Still Has One Goalie

Training camp cuts came Monday — 16 players out the door — and the crease picture didn't get any clearer. Adin Hill is the only goaltender on this roster who has played meaningful NHL minutes, and that's been the situation since the Akira Schmid trade to Florida in June. Michael Hutchinson's retirement removed the last obvious fallback. The depth chart at the position currently lists one name.

The September 11 news item about a former Knights goaltender catching on elsewhere is worth a mention here: whoever that is, Vegas isn't the beneficiary. The organization has had all summer to address this and arrives at the final week of camp with the same structural problem it had in July.

My read is that Vegas is betting Hill stays healthy and that whatever is behind him on the depth chart — likely a camp body or an AHL call-up — never has to matter. That's a reasonable gamble on a good goalie. It is still a gamble. The Knights open at home against Chicago on September 29, and if Hill misses any time early, the question stops being theoretical.