Quick vs. Korpisalo: Which goalie will help his new team more?

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When the NHL trade deadline passed on March 3, only two franchises – the Los Angeles Kings and the Vegas Golden Knights – made significant moves aimed at improving in the crease. And considering the netminders involved, there’s plenty of intrigue to go around.

L.A. added goaltender Joonas Korpisalo from the Columbus Blue Jackets, while the Golden Knights acquired Jonathan Quick after L.A. had sent him to Columbus in the Korpisalo deal.

The best part? Both teams are in the Pacific Division. And there’s a decent chance they face one another in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Imagine that: two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Kings, Quick, going up against his former team in the postseason.

The storylines write themselves. The potential matchup couldn’t be any juicier. And if motivation was the ultimate determinant of eventual outcome, Quick and the Golden Knights would prevail over the Kings in a four-game sweep.

The problem is, motivation only goes so far. It tends to be overplayed by fans and media alike. And it even exists in the locker room. Players all talk about how motivated they are – like the other team somehow isn’t.

Want to know what really matters for a goaltender? Control. Technique. Balance. Consistency. Mental toughness. Those are just a few buzzwords that carry so much weight when analyzing the play of NHL netminders.

So now that the 2023 NHL trade deadline has passed, are the Kings or the Golden Knights in a better position to capture the Stanley Cup? Will Korpisalo or Quick prove to be an upgrade for either team? I have some thoughts.

At the conclusion of the 2021-22 NHL season, I wasn’t sure Korpisalo would get another NHL one-way contract. He’d lost the No.1 job to Blue Jackets goalie partner Elvis Merzlikins, and his numbers weren’t pretty.

In 55 games played during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, Korpisalo had an .887 save percentage and 3.63 goals against average. His advanced stats weren’t much better. According to moneypuck.com’s goals saved above expected metric, Korpisalo ranked 53rd of all NHL goaltenders that played at least 20 games during the 2021-22 season.

But I don’t think it was truly known how much Korpisalo was struggling with nagging injuries. And on March 24, 2022, the Blue Jackets announced Korpisalo would miss the remainder of the season and undergo hip surgery.

Recovery was expected to take six months. And Columbus did Korpisalo a solid by offering him a one-year, $1.3 million dollar contract extension.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when Korpisalo returned to the Blue Jackets lineup on Nov. 5, 2022. His past few seasons had not been good, and I thought a lot of it was technical. Korpisalo liked to play well outside his crease. He was over-reliant on post-integrations. And most of all, the Finnish netminder struggled mightily to rotate efficiently. All of which led to him chasing the play and routinely lunging for pucks.

Looking back, I can’t help but wonder how much Korpisalo was overcompensating for his injured hip. Because from what I’ve seen so far this year, he looks like the best version of himself. The one that used to be the heir apparent to Sergei Bobrovsky in Columbus.

In 29 games this season, Korpisalo has a .913 save percentage. He ranks 17th in goals saved above expected. And most importantly, the eye test is really strong.

Korpisalo is staying closer to home. About the only time he ventures out of the blue paint is on rush chances against, which makes sense considering his outstanding skating ability. He prefers to have some backwards flow when play is coming towards him.

But what I find really noticeable is Korpisalo’s level of control. It’s the best I’ve seen from him. And it’s not just because his hip is healthy. It’s pretty clear to me that Korpisalo decided to make technical changes during his recovery, and now it’s paying off.

With any goaltender, there are concerns. Korpisalo will occasionally over-utilize the reverse VH post-integration technique and get burned by it. And he still defaults to reaching for pucks rather than pushing into saves with both legs.

But the Kings are getting a solid goaltender with a knack for big moments. Korpisalo was huge for the Blue Jackets during the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, including an NHL record 85 saves in a quintuple overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

So are the Kings better in goal? Unequivocally I think they are. While Pheonix Copley has done yeoman’s work in the L.A. crease since being recalled from the AHL, there is a limit to his effectiveness. Copley’s record of 19-4-2 far outshines his .899 save percentage.

To put it bluntly, Cal Petersen and Jonathan Quick were costing the Kings games. And there was no chance Los Angeles was going to put a franchise legend like Quick on waivers. He won two Stanley Cup championships as a member of the Kings and earned the 2012 Conn Smythe trophy as the NHL’s playoff MVP.

Quick’s number will be retired by the Kings. A statue will be built. But his .876 save percentage in 31 appearances with L.A. this season wasn’t anywhere close to good enough. And it’s now been more than five NHL seasons since Quick’s save percentage was above league average.

I wrote about some of the problems with Quick’s game last November here at Daily Faceoff. And frankly, nothing has changed since I wrote the piece. While the majority of NHL goaltenders have updated their technique in recent years, Quick has remained steadfast in his old-school approach to the position.

Quick plays small by today’s standards. He’s on his knees early and often. The Golden Knights netminder goes paddle-down at inopportune times. And he tends to reach for the puck rather than get his entire body in front of the shot. Among other things.

Thankfully for Quick, he landed with a team that has done a fantastic job of keeping opposing teams to the perimeter. According to moneypuck.com, Vegas has given up the second-fewest number of high-danger shots this season.

But the Kings aren’t far behind with the seventh-fewest. Despite a stingy team in front of him, Quick was the weakest link on L.A.’s defensive chain.

Ask any former teammate and they will all tell you that Quick might be the most competitive person they ever shared the ice with. And I don’t doubt that for a second. There’s a reason why Quick is one of the most decorated American-born goaltenders and why he should be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The problem is that motivation and competitiveness can’t overcome technical deficiencies in today’s NHL. Quick is so exciting in goal because no one plays like him any longer – and for good reason. He was always an outlier, a goalie that couldn’t be copied. But over time, as pre-scouts became hyper-detailed, opposing teams figured out his tendencies.

Quick is still able to steal games occasionally. And he’ll probably do fine for Vegas during the rest of the regular season. If that’s the plan, for Quick to play some games in tandem with Adin Hill until Logan Thompson returns from the injured reserve, so be it. Spending a seventh-round draft pick for some insurance made sense. Even if I think there were better goalies available for a similar price.

But here’s the catch: Hill has been fantastic lately. His game continues to improve after a tough stretch during the month of January. If the Golden Knights make the Stanley Cup playoffs, will Bruce Cassidy and the Golden Knights front office stash Quick on the bench? Or even in the press box? There’s a good argument to be made that they should. But will they?

My point is this: he’s Jonathan Quick. His reputation precedes him. There will be a strong push, regardless of how he plays during the rest of the season for the Golden Knights, to start him in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Provided that Vegas makes the postseason. The team really has no choice to do so: heads will roll in Sin City if the Golden Knights somehow fall out of contention by the end of the regular season.

If that’s the route Vegas chooses, I think it would be pretty bold. Thompson has had a solid rookie campaign and will be a big part of the franchise over the next few seasons. He’s the team’s most dynamic goalie and he’d already won 20 games in 35 starts. And like I said earlier, Hill continues to play quality minutes. He’s 16-6-1 this year with a .914 save percentage. Is Cassidy going to shelf him, too?

Bottom line: this all needs to shake out before the 2022-23 Stanley Cup playoffs begin. But I think the Kings hit a home run bringing in Joonas Kopisalo. And I think the Golden Knights might have bought on reputation rather than performance.

Hoping for the best rarely works. But planning for the best is predictable. The Kings are solid in goal, while the Golden Knights might have a mess on their hands.

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Quick vs. Korpisalo: Which goalie will help his new team more?

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