Golden Knights’ goaltending could be team’s playoff downfall

The Vegas Golden Knights have enjoyed consistent success since joining the NHL, but the 2025-26 season hasn’t quite gone to plan for their projects, or the entire Pacific Division. 

Chief among the Golden Knights’ issues has been goaltending, with each of the four goaltenders who have played this season sitting under a .900 save percentage — and the starting duo of Akira Schmid and Adin Hill boasting .893 and .869 statlines, respectively. 

On the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live, former NHL netminder and co-host Carter Hutton dives into the Vegas situation with Tyler Yaremchuk. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: Vegas, Aiden Hill, they’ve been brutal between the pipes. I know he got hot there for a little bit, but I don’t know. The Edmonton Oilers’ goaltending issues are not unique in this division. Everyone is struggling to keep pucks out of their net.

Carter Hutton: It’s across the board, too. It’s wild, because you think at this point of the season, with the amount of time they’ve had… You talk about Vegas, Bruce Cassidy, his demeanor, it’s just been a lack of success, right? I think it is concerning this time of year. And why do I say this time of year? Because there is a transition in the NHL, one I’ve dealt with so many times. 

As a goalie or a player, if you were on a good team, and you could get to that January-ish mark with, like, good numbers and good consistency, it really led into because things started to tighten up, and it got harder, and it was tighter, and five-on-five play was harder, where in this specific division, it seems like they’re lacking so much, and I find it so unique that it’s this one division where it seems like overloaded with teams that can’t defend, they give up a lot of goals. 

You can catch the full Pacific Division breakdown and goaltending discussion here…