Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

HOCKEY NOTES:

Golden Knights goalie’s fast start makes him favorite for rare honor

Golden Knights vs Arizona Coyotes

Wade Vandervort

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Logan Thompson (36) blocks a shot by Arizona Coyotes left wing Matias Maccelli (63) during the second period of an NHL hockey game at T-Mobile Arena Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022.

Not since 2009 has a goalie won the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year in the NHL. And only five times since 1991 has a goalie received the award.

The Golden Knights’ Logan Thompson is positioning himself to buck that trend, posting a 14-8-0 record with a 2.64 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage so far this season.

The 14 wins are tied for third-most in the league, three behind Boston’s Linus Ullmark, who is the favorite to win the Vezina Trophy awarded to the league’s top goalie. Thompson might not be ready to be a finalist for the Vezina himself, but he’s the No. 1 goalie on the team with the best record in the Western Conference.

A panel of 14 writers from NHL.com in late November tabbed Thompson — who was undrafted goalie out of Brock University in Ontario, Canada — as the favorite to win the award. Thompson was awarded 11 of the possible 14 first-place votes in the panel’s projections column, besting Seattle Kraken forward Matty Beniers.

ESPN had Thompson as the leader in its NHL Awards Watch at the beginning of December, once again ahead of Beniers, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft.

The 20-year-old Beniers leads all rookie skaters with 24 points and is on pace for a 65-point season, similar to other rookies who have recently won the award. Those include: Mat Barzal (85 in 2018), Auston Matthews (69 in 2017), Elias Pettersson (66 in 2019) and Nathan MacKinnon (63 in 2014).

Thompson became the No. 1 goalie in a season that was not expected to feature a No. 1 option in Vegas. With Robin Lehner out for the year and Laurent Brossoit missing the first month-plus, Thompson and Adin Hill provided stability in net, with Thompson eventually taking the reins on the starter’s job.

“I think he has a good mentality for a goalie. He doesn’t carry previous games with him,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “He hasn’t been too high or low so far. That’s always the challenge with young goalies. When things are going well, they can enjoy that, but when they’re not, how do you bounce back to being a steady, solid guy?”

History says it takes a special season for a goalie to win the Calder. The most recent winner, Steve Mason, went 33-20-7 as a 20-year-old with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2009. Columbus reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time ever that year.

Andrew Raycroft won the award in 2004 when he posted a 2.05 goals-against average and .926 save percentage to help the Bruins make the playoffs. Evgeni Nabokov also did well in keeping the puck out of the net in 2000-01 (2.19 goals-against average) when he won the award with the San Jose Sharks.

The other two winners in the ’90s? Two of the best to ever play the position: Martin Brodeur and Ed Belfour.

“Goalies, like coaches, take a little more to heart when you don’t win,” Cassidy said. “I think that’s where we have to make sure we’re good with him. Just, ‘Listen, get back in there, we’ll play better in front of you, and you go do your part.’ ”

Pietrangelo returns

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo returned to the lineup Saturday after missing 10 games to help tend to his 4-year-old daughter, Evelyn, who was hospitalized.

She contracted the flu in late November and it turned into encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that caused her to lose all motor function.

“The first five days, she basically couldn’t open her eyes,” Pietrangelo said.

Treatment over a weeklong period removed the lesion in her brain, which Pietrangelo said progressed a lot quicker than anticipated.

“I said I wouldn’t go back to work until I felt comfortable with where she is at home,” Pietrangelo said. “I told my wife, if it takes a year to get her back to where she needs to be, so be it. There’s more to life than some things.”

Evelyn came home Wednesday and started walking on her own.

“God answered our prayers, and it’s amazing with how far she’s come,” Pietrangelo said. “I feel comfortable where she is, and there’s still months and months of extensive rehab to get her back to where she was before this happened. As a family, that’s something we’re going to have to kind of work through.”

Pietrangelo had an assist against the New York Islanders in his first game back Saturday.