Vegas Golden Knights exercising all goaltender options in preseason

The Vegas Golden Knights will be looking at all their goaltending options this preseason. 

While it's assumed the tandem of Adin Hill and Ilya Samsonov will be the starter and backup in the regular season, Akira Schmid will start Sunday against the San Jose Sharks and Isaiah Saville will back him up.

Out of the four, the only goalie who logged minutes with the Golden Knights last season was Hill. Samsonov and Schmid were both acquired this summer; Saville has spent the last two seasons with the Henderson Silver Knights.

Hill's time was limited last season as he struggled with a lower-body injury, eventually returning halfway through the Golden Knights' first-round series against the Dallas Stars. After getting an elongated summer to recover, Hill said that he's feeling better than ever. 

"I'm feeling good. My hips and lower body are better than ever," Hill said. "I just tried to make a program this summer and stuck with it." 

According to Samsonov, Hill was the first to reach out to him when he signed with the Golden Knights. The 27-year-old netminder said that he had options of where he wanted to play but chose Vegas due to their successful reputation in the league and to get the chance to play with Hill. 

"I want to push Adin (Hill) and he will push me and that's really good for a team," Samsonov said. "If you get two good goalies, that's huge for a team." 

Samsonov is signed to a 1-year, "show me contract" meaning that the Golden Knights want to see results from him before committing to him long-term. He's coming off a turbulent stint in Toronto where he was placed on waivers in December 2023 after he had allowed 22 goals in four games, which included a 6-5 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets where he allowed six goals on 21 shots.

It was a mental hurdle for the goaltender, but he said that he wants to move on from the past. 

"The first four months (of the year) were really tough for me," Samsonov said. "I don't want to talk about it because it's in the past...It's just the mental stuff. It's huge to be back and I don't think about that stuff anymore."

Samsonov said that during the first two months of being on waivers, he was working with a psychologist every day and "is stronger now" than he was prior. 

With six preseason games, it's looking like all of the Golden Knights' goaltenders will get a chance to play. It's something that coach Bruce Cassidy has been looking forward to as he hasn't been able to properly assess the goalies in practice.

"Some of these drills are unfair to goalies," Cassidy said. "3-on-0s and some of them don't see a shot because guys are having trouble creating offense just. These guys haven't played together a lot. It's tough to evaluate the goaltenders, but they haven't missed a minute."