Henderson Silver Knights goaltender Laurent Brossoit smiles during practice at the Lifeguard Arena in Henderson Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.
Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Laurent Brossoit admits at times he gets frustrated.
This wasn’t the route he expected to take this year. If Brossoit had his way, he’d be with the Golden Knights right now with the intent to prove he’s capable of being a No. 1 goalie.
He is a No. 1 goalie right now, but not for the team or in the league he expected. Brossoit’s current home is with the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League as he continues to work his way back to the NHL after recovering from offseason hip surgery.
“I’m only human,” Brossoit said this week. “Once in a while, I’ll crack a bit.”
That frustration eventually passes, and Brossoit will come back with the acceptance that he’s just happy to be playing right now.
The Golden Knights signed Brossoit to a two-year, $4.65 million contract back in July 2021. He was brought in to be the backup to Robin Lehner in the wake of trading Marc-Andre Fleury, the former face of the franchise, to Chicago.
There was some good in Brossoit’s first season in Las Vegas. He won five of his first six starts and looked every bit like the once-acclaimed best backup in the league.
Then, things went south quickly. Brossoit lost 11 of his final 16 starts, posting an .883 save percentage. His last start came on March 15 against his former team in Winnipeg, giving up four goals on 13 shots.
Brossoit was shut down the next day. He later unveiled that he went under the knife for hip surgery. It was a chronic issue that stemmed from his junior hockey days. Most of the symptoms, though, seemed to stem from issues with his back.
“All of a sudden, the diagnosis was made for the hip to be fixed,” Brossoit said. “That threw the medical staff through a bit of a loop.”
Add in Lehner undergoing double hip surgery and missing this season, and the Golden Knights’ plan in goal was suddenly in scramble mode.
The emergence of rookie Logan Thompson alleviated the Golden Knights’ worries a bit. With Brossoit’s availability unknown at the time, the Golden Knights traded for Adin Hill from San Jose. The plan was for Hill to be a stopgap until Brossoit was ready to make his return.
But something funny happened: The Golden Knights were winning with their young goaltending tandem. They won eight of their first 10 at the time Brossoit was sent to Henderson for his conditioning assignment on Oct. 31.
With Vegas staying near the top of the league standings by Thanksgiving, that prolonged Brossoit’s stint in Henderson. Last month, Thompson was named an NHL All-Star.
“It’s one of those things where they’ve played well enough to keep me down here. Tip the cap to them,” Brossoit said. “Instead of getting bitter about it, just keep an eye out and see what kind of work they’re getting and what kind of work I should be expecting if I get back up there. You can always learn by watching. It doesn’t matter how old you are.”
Brossoit’s response of staying positive mentally while playing in the minors and approaching his 30th birthday boils down to this: He’s staying focused on the process.
Part of that process has evolved into becoming the elder statesman and de facto leader of the Silver Knights.
Brossoit entered the weekend at 8-11-2 with a 2.77 goals-against average and .906 save percentage, being the presumptive 1A in Henderson with 23-year-old Jiri Patera.
After a rough start to the season by allowing 22 goals in his first seven starts, Brossoit followed with his best stretch in the first two weeks of December, allowing four goals in five starts. That included back-to-back shutouts against San Jose and Abbotsford and earning him AHL’s player of the week honors.
“Coming down here might have been a blessing in disguise for the first month or so, or two, where there were some cobwebs I had to shake off that I might have been too proud to admit at the time, not having played in over half a year,” Brossoit said.
Brossoit’s time in the AHL has allowed him to sharpen skills that go beyond a goalie’s technique.
For one, he’s learning how to be a mentor and leader. It’s not something he did a lot of at the NHL level considering he’s been a backup for most of his career.
But being a mentor to Patera, and being a communicator to the skaters in front of him, has been an adjustment Brossoit has taken in stride.
“You can take the A (AHL) away and put the N (NHL) there, and you wouldn’t know the difference,” Silver Knights coach Manny Viveiros said of Brossoit. “That’s the sign of a true pro and really good teammate.
“He’s not a guy that’s going to sit here and complain or pout. He’s here to work his way back to the NHL. When you have that attitude, you can only improve much more.”
Despite a rough 2-8-0 start to the season, the Silver Knights are still in contention to get back to the Calder Cup Playoffs for the third time in team history.
Entering their final weekend series against Colorado before the All-Star break, the Silver Knights were four points back of San Jose for the last playoff spot in the Pacific Division. The top seven teams in the division qualify for the playoffs.
Henderson has played a league-high 45 games, so there’s still some ground to make up with the teams ahead in the standings.
“Before the Christmas break we made a big leap forward, and I think that got us in that area we’re in right now,” Brossoit said. “We haven’t really pushed that since. We’ve been a win-one, lose-one type of team, which considering the start of the season seems like an improvement.
“But I think everyone on the team would agree that we’ve beaten some of the best teams in the league. The potential is there. We’re starting to get to that point where there’s no excuse not to win multiple games in a row, especially when we’re playing some of the teams that aren’t at that top echelon.”
The longer Brossoit stays in Henderson, he said, he starts to feel more invested in the Silver Knights’ success. That’s not to say he’s completely turned off what’s going on 25 minutes away in Summerlin where the Golden Knights train.
If something happens and he’s called back to the Golden Knights, he’ll be ready.
As of now, it’s still about the process.
“It’s starting to feel like my team,” Brossoit said, “and you start to get that drive where you want to make the playoffs.”
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
