The Vegas Golden Knights have signed goaltender Akira Schmid to a two-year, one-way contract with a salary of $875K in both seasons, per CapFriendly.
It’s been under a week since the Golden Knights acquired Schmid and Alexander Holtz from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for Paul Cotter and a third-round pick in 2025. Due to his approximate $850K salary from 2021-2024, Schmid’s qualifying offer with Vegas would have been close to $900K, which the team decided not to extend to Schmid.
Only on the free agent market for a few days, Schmid officially joins the Golden Knights with plans on starting the year with their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights. Vegas already filled the hole left by the trade of Logan Thompson, as they’ve signed goaltender Ilya Samsonov to assume the role of backup.
The past two seasons for Schmid could not be more dissimilar even though he totaled nearly the same amount of games played. On the backs of an impressively strong year from the rest of the young roster, Schmid recorded a 9-5-2 record while posting a .922 save percentage and 2.13 goals against average. Somehow, in only a year, Schmid recorded a 5-9-1 record for New Jersey, earning a .895 SV% and 3.15 GAA.
It will be difficult for Vegas to surmise exactly what goaltender they will be getting after such a stark contrast in performance. By starting in Henderson, Schmid will join a team on the rise as they look to qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2021-22 AHL season.
The 2 best goalies of the 22-23 playoffs on the same team now
If it’s a 1 way deal how does he/the team plan on him starting the year in the AHL?. Why not sign a 2 year deal that 2way year 1 and split with 1M in the nhl and 500K in the minors with a 850K minimum payment. He has to go thru waivers now and if anybody has a backup injury he is gone, at least for a few weeks
Not sure if I understand correctly. But Schmid is waiver exempt, as far as I’m concerned. Waiver exemption isn’t requiring a two-way deal. “Two-way deal” only means that the player’s AHL salary is lower than the NHL salary.
@Grocery stick is correct. Of note, Schmid does only have 8 NHL GP remaining until he loses his waiver exemption. He may end up requiring them to head back to Henderson if he plays enough this season. Regardless, he also only has one pro season remaining before losing the waiver exemption, so if he ends up being their third-string guy in 2025-26, too, he’ll need to clear waivers during training camp in the fall.