After spending 16 seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, goaltender Jonathan Quick has now been drafted twice in the last few days, first going to Columbus (which was written about by Alex at the time), and now he's back in the Western Conference following a trade to the Vegas Golden Knights:

The full trade is Michael Hutchinson and a 2025 seventh-round pick from Vegas going to Columbus for Quick. Let's break it down with help from our Frozen Tools or Natural Stat Trick.

What Vegas gets

It has been a long downturn for Quick, who was one of the best goalies in the league for a long time. This isn't conjecture, either, as Evolving Hockey has his Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx) second in the league in the 10 years between 2008-09 and 2017-18. He may not have been number-2 behind Henrik Lundqvist, but he was surely in the top half-dozen net-minders of that era.

Things have not gone well since then, generally speaking. While his 2021-22 season was very good, his last five years in aggregate have provided the third worst GSAx in the NHL, ahead of only Joonas Korpisalo (funny enough) and Martin Jones. His save percentage at 5-on-5 was second worst in the league, ahead of only Jones, and he has given up at least four goals in over half (14) of his starts (27) this season. With Los Angeles searching for reliable goaltending in the playoffs, Quick went to Columbus and now he's in Vegas.

To be sure, he is going to a very good defensive environment. The Golden Knights have the fourth-lowest rate of expected goals against at 5-on-5 in the league, and are giving up fewer unblocked shots per minute at 5-on-5 that teams like Tampa Bay, Winnipeg, and Dallas. That should ostensibly help Quick, but Los Angeles is good defensively as well (though maybe not to the same level as Vegas). If he was one of the worst goalies in the league with the Kings, how much can he improve on a marginally better defensive roster?

Right now, it simply doesn't matter. He's clearly being brought in to get starts alongside Adin Hill until they get healthy, and he might get starts beyond that. Any goalie that is getting NHL starts can get hot for a while; Quick has been one of the worst goalies in the NHL this season and still had a nine-game stretch from late-October to late-November that saw him post a .913 SV% (yes that's a hot streak for him). He could do that during head-to-head fantasy playoffs. It's not to be expected, but it's certainly in the realm of possibility. So, yes, he can be used as a streamer, but he probably does not have much of a leash if he has a few bad starts in a row.

Of course, this is bad news for Logan Thompson whenever he's healthy. At the least, Hill has been good in reprieve and Quick gives them a veteran option. Where Thompson looked like the lock number-1 starter through mid-December, he posted a .907 save percentage in 15 games before the injury. He is not the lock number-1 and this is an issue.

It is similarly bad news for Hill and Laurent Brossoit. There are four goalies that could get starts when they're both healthy and Thompson is the goalie of the future while Quick is the Cup-laden veteran. It is an uphill (no pun intended, honestly) battle for both of them now, even if they're healthy enough to start.

Who This Helps

Elvis Merzlikins

Who This Hurts

Adin Hill

Laurent Brossoit

Logan Thompson