Golden Knights make surprising lineup decision in title defense opener

Adin Hill was a rock for the Vegas Golden Knights during the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs and led the club to its first championship a year ago. But the 27-year-old will watch from the bench Monday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference first round against the Dallas Stars.

Logan Thompson, who has been paying attention to the Knights lately, will start his first-ever postseason game in the opener at the American Airlines Center in Texas, according to Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The sophomore was excellent for most of last year and was even named an All-Star as a rookie. But after a few lower-body injuries, he played just two games and never saw the crease in the 2023 playoffs.

That’s going to change immediately in 2024, when the Knights face another high-powered team with legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations. It is a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals, in which Vegas led 3-0 and eventually won in six games.

They would defeat the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 – in front of a hysterical crowd at T-Mobile Arena – to capture their first championship in just year 6 of their existence.

And in Year 7, it looks like it’s Thompson’s net, as the defending champions look to be the first team to go back-to-back since the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021.

“Last year was bad for me personally,” Thompson admitted prior to Game 1, per Webster. “Obviously you couldn’t be happier for the team.”

Thompson was great for his side this time and deserves to be between the pipes for the postseason. He is 8-3 since early March and has allowed one goal or less in seven of them. Over 46 appearances in 2023-24, he finished with a .908 save percentage and a 2.70 goals-against average. Those are good numbers.

But moving on from Hill, who was 11-4 last postseason, is certainly an interesting choice.

Knights have two excellent goalkeeping options in their quest for back-to-back titles

Still, Hill didn’t enter the postseason as Vegas’ starter in 2023; it was Laurent Brossoit, now the Jets’ backup, who started the Stanley Cup Playoffs. So there’s a good chance Hill will get some action – probably a little later in Round 1.

But Thompson currently has the full confidence of his head coach.

“He is mentally involved in the game. You can see it in his puck play,” Bruce Cassidy explained, per Webster.

“It’s probably because Logan wants to play playoff hockey. He saw what (Hill) and Brossoit did last year and he would like to be that guy too. I think it’s that simple. I think he might be more under control than he was at the beginning of the year. I think the team plays better for him, so he doesn’t have to play on his own side for longer periods of time.”

The Stars and Golden Knights are two of the best teams in the NHL and don’t actually have a business meeting in the opening round. But the series should be electric, and Logan Thompson has earned this opportunity with the way he has performed recently.

Of course, Mark Stone, Anthony Mantha and Alex Pietrangelo – who have all been out, and in true Vegas Golden Knights fashion – will be ready to hit the ground running when the title defense begins on Monday.