Among the many skater signings the Blackhawks have reportedly made on Monday, they also picked up some help in net with goaltender Laurent Brossoit, who won a Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2021.
The team confirmed Monday afternoon:
The initial report came from Frank Seravalli from the Daily Faceoff:
Brossoit, 31, is a solid addition to the Blackhawks: while he’s never established himself as more than a backup — he’s actually never played more than 24 games in a season before — he’s been really good in that role over the last several years. Originally drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2011 (sixth round), he went on to spend several seaons with both the Edmonton Oilers and the Winnipeg Jets before signing with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018. Despite some struggles early on, Brossoit slowly became more reliable, helping the Knights win their first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets. He exited the playoffs with an injury in the next round, but the team may not have won the Stanley Cup that year without his play against his former team in Round 3.
After leaving Vegas, Brossoit re-signed with the Jets last summer where he put up a .927 save percentage and 2.00 goals-against average in 23 games. He has a .911 save percentage and 2.63 goals-against average in 140 NHL games for his career.
Brossoit should be a supportive backup behind Petr Mrázek, who had a solid bounce-back season with a .908 save percentage and 3.05 goals-against average behind, arguably, the worst defensive team in the league last year. Brossoit and Mrázek may even be able to split time in net more evenly considering that the workload will likely still be heavy, despite some expected improvement of the skaters in front of them.
The Blackhawks signing of Brossoit also means Arvid Söderblom, who struggled mightily in his first NHL season, is most likely headed back to the Rockford IceHogs for more seasoning. This is good for the Swedish netminder, who will turn just 25 this year, and goalies typically take the longest among hockey players to develop. The signing also gives more developmental runway to Drew Commesso (who’s 21) and Adam Gajan (20) as they play in the AHL and NCAA, respectively, for the next few seasons.