Vegas Has One Goalie and a Shrinking List of Options

Carter Hart is the only goaltender on this roster who has played a meaningful minute. That's not a depth concern — it's a structural problem, and the offseason has made it worse, not better.

Akira Schmid is gone, locked into a two-year extension with Florida. Michael Hutchinson retired last week. The veteran backup market, already thin, keeps getting thinner. Vegas moved cap space this summer — the Rasmus Andersson extension freed up over three million dollars — but none of that flexibility has found its way to the crease. September 29 against Chicago is not far off, and right now there is no plan B if Hart misses time.

My read is that this is the most urgent item left on the roster. The coaching transition, the Dorofeyev scoring void, the close-game execution problems that plagued Vegas all season — those are real. But a team can paper over an offensive hole for a few weeks. A team cannot paper over having no backup goaltender. The Knights went 39-43 last season and missed the playoffs; they cannot afford to lose Hart for ten days in November and hand starts to someone who has not logged a professional minute in this system.

The market is what it is. But Vegas has the cap room and the urgency, and at this point a professional tryout for a capable veteran would be better than where they stand now. Someone needs to be in that crease by training camp.