Golden Knights Agree to Six-Year Extension With Adin Hill
The Vegas Golden Knights have extended goaltender Adin Hill through the 2030-31 season, per a club announcement on Friday.
According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, Hill’s six-year extension is worth $37.5 million and features a $6.25 million cap hit per season. He was previously set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, with his current two-year deal with a cap hit of $4.9 million expiring after this season.
Backup netminder Ilya Samsonov will become a UFA this summer after signing a one-year deal worth $1.8 million with the Golden Knights last off-season, meaning both of the franchise’s goaltenders were scheduled to hit the open market in a few months prior to extending Hill.
The announcement comes fresh off Thursday’s 4-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, where the 28-year-old stopped all 27 shots he faced for his fourth shutout – a new career-high – of the season.
Hill has made 39 starts during his third campaign with Vegas, posting a 2.53 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage thus far. He ranks 13th in goals saved above expected (13.8) out of 54 qualified goaltenders (min. 20 games played) this season, per MoneyPuck.
It’s a considerable improvement from last season’s results, which included a 2.71 GAA, .909 SV percentage and only two shutouts across 35 games (all starts). However, the Comox, B.C., native played through a nagging lower-body injury for much of the year, missing two separate stints due to that ailment.
The 6-foot-4 netminder, a third-round selection by the Arizona Coyotes in 2015, spent his first four NHL seasons in the desert before playing one season with the San Jose Sharks in 2021-22. But it wasn’t until he arrived in Vegas via trade ahead of the 2022-23 season that he started to blossom.
The Sharks received a 2024 fourth-round pick in exchange for Hill. Meanwhile, he enjoyed a breakout campaign with the Golden Knights, earning a remarkable 2.45 GAA and .915 SV percentage in 27 appearances (25 starts).
Thanks to his sensational playoff performance that season, which included an eye-popping 2.17 GAA and .932 SV percentage with two shutouts over 16 games (14 starts), he helped pave the way for Vegas’ first-ever Stanley Cup championship in ‘23.
It’s been a busy season for Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon, at least more than usual, as he’s now extended five pending free agents since the start of 2024-25. The other four include defencemen Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb, along with forwards Brett Howden and Keegan Kolesar.
With 17 games remaining in the regular season, Vegas enters Friday’s slate with a six-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings for top spot in the Pacific Division, with 85 points and a 39-19-7 record. If the playoffs began immediately, they’d face the Minnesota Wild in a best-of-seven opening-round matchup.
The Golden Knights will conclude their five-game road trip with this weekend’s back-to-back against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday and the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.