Adin Hill spent a lot of hours in the garage of his parents’ home in Calgary this summer.
On one side of the garage stands a metal rack loaded with goalie pads from Hill’s past. There are a few miniature sets from his days of youth hockey, before his late growth spurt, in which he became the behemoth of a goalie he is today. There are a couple of brick-red and black pads from his time with the Arizona Coyotes, a couple cloaked in San Jose Sharks’ teal, and a shiny gold pair that he’s worn with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Next to that sits a large piece of workout equipment with black padding, silver coils and colorful attachments protruding from its underside. After every practice this summer, Hill went straight home to workout on the machine, stretching and strengthening his core muscles to prepare for the most important season of his life.
The machine, and the program that accompanies it, is essentially a souped-up version of pilates. The equipment uses tension to integrate strength training into stability and mobility exercises, and Hill hopes it will help solve the biggest problem that he’s had to this point in his NHL career: Durability.
“I know I can be an elite goalie in this league, so I have the confidence in myself,” Hill told The Athletic. “The biggest thing is, I just want to play starter games. I don’t want to finish the season at 35 games like I did last season. I want to be able to play 50-plus.”
This season is a fork in the road for Hill’s NHL career. He’s proven he can perform at an elite level for stretches, with no better evidence than his sensational playoff run in 2023 that ended with the Stanley Cup raised above his head. The problem is those stretches haven’t happened consistently enough through the first seven years of his NHL career, largely because he’s dealt with a myriad of injuries.
Hill’s contract expires at the end of this season, and the possible outcomes for his next deal are incredibly wide-ranging.
On one hand, he clearly has all of the physical tools to be a franchise goalie. He has prototypical size at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, and moves exceptionally well. If he puts together a full season of work at the high level he’s already shown he’s capable of, combined with the Cup already on his resume, Hill would enter the free-agent market at age 29 viewed as one of the top goalies in the world.
On the other hand, a mediocre season – whether it’s through subpar performance or injuries – would leave many questioning if Hill can even be a full-time starter. He has never played more than 35 games in a season, and without further proof over a larger sample size, his Cup run could be viewed as a hot streak that didn’t last.
There’s a lot on the line for Hill in 2024-25, and he knows it. He spent the entire summer doing everything within his power to prepare his body for it, and believes he’s ready. He hasn’t shied away from the fact that durability has been an issue.
“It was frustrating,” Hill said following the end of last season. “I think it was the third year in a row that I’ve had a bit of injury problems. Nobody wants to be injured. It sucks seeing your team battle out there without you, feeling helpless in a way. I’m going to do whatever I can this summer to be injury-free next season, and just uncover every stone to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
That’s exactly what he’s done in the months since, and it’s no surprise to those who know Hill best.
“The thing that always stood out to me was the way his brain operates,” said Hill’s personal goalie coach Justin Cardinal, who has worked with him since he was 10 years old. “He sees things for what they are. He wants solutions to problems. He doesn’t want to be told to just work harder. There’s always a solution to the problem, so let’s find it.”
Cardinal is the co-founder of Evolution Goaltending Corp. in Calgary, and has coached high-level goalies for 20 years. He coached in the Western Hockey League for the Kootenay Ice and Prince George Cougars, and has worked with Hill and former Golden Knights goalie Logan Thompson since they were young.
“There was never a time where things got hard and he wanted to quit or pout or feel sorry for himself,” Cardinal said of Hill. “He was always looking for a solution to be better. To have that at a young age really stood out to me as something special.”
In many ways, this offseason was typical for Hill. He spent the majority of it at home in Calgary, skating with Cardinal as he always does. The biggest difference was the addition of the pilates-style workouts with the “Platform” machine he purchased from a company called True Movement. He performed those exercises on a daily basis following his practice skates, focusing on strengthening the muscles around his hips and groin.
“I’m just trying to build strength when I’m in those stretched-out positions,” Hill said. “My hips are moving better than ever. My groin feels stronger than ever and my hips feel strong, so I like it.”
On the ice, Hill focused on the small, technical details that he believes are the foundation of his game when he’s at his best. That includes staying patient on his edges, maintaining a narrow stance with his feet firmly underneath him while navigating the crease, and making sure his hands follow his body while he stays forward on the puck.
Cardinal has worked with Hill on those aspects for years, and he has already seen some of the benefits of Hill’s new off-ice workouts.
“Improving the range of motion allows for better technique, so we can focus on little tweaks,” he explained. “Instead of having that voice in your head telling you that this movement might hurt, you know you’re strong there. Then that starts to happen automatically as an instinct, not a skill that you have to think about.”
The Golden Knights liked the idea so much, they bought another one of the machines to put inside the practice facility for Hill to use daily during the season.
Hill has had stretches of elite play over the last two years in Vegas. He went 11-4 in the 2023 playoffs with an impressive .932 save percentage, 13.13 goals saved above expected and two shutouts. That was good enough to earn him votes for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
He followed that up with a red-hot start to last season, leading the league with a .938 save percentage through early February. At that point, he had stopped 19.62 GSAx, which was just behind the eventual Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck and runner-up Thatcher Demko. He was on pace to be included in that Vezina conversation before several injuries derailed his season.
“Obviously he’s a big guy and he’s very athletic, but his anticipation is great and that’s why you see him make so many highlight-reel saves,” teammate Jack Eichel said. “As a shooter in practice, I’m asking him a lot of times, ‘Did you know where I was shooting? What was my tell?’ I think he’s got a good hockey IQ. You combine that with his athleticism and how big of a guy he is, and when he’s at his best, he’s one of the best.”
And while Hill has yet to prove he can be a workhorse in the NHL, his coach already senses he has the right mentality for it.
“I think he’s mature,” Bruce Cassidy said. “Even though he hasn’t played a ton of games in a particular season, he certainly has, to me, the demeanor to do that. Health just needs to cooperate. I think he has a good mentality to be a top guy.”
Cassidy has coached Hill for only two seasons, but sees the same thing Cardinal mentioned after more than a decade of experience with him: An unrelenting search for solutions to problems.
“He’s certainly a calm guy,” Cassidy said. “A goal doesn’t bother him. I think he’ll bounce back if he has a game that he doesn’t like. He’s not snapping the next day in practice; he’s getting to work and getting better. His demeanor is good. Never too high or too low.”
Coaches’ actions speak louder than words, and Cassidy’s actions last postseason showed his immense trust in Hill. Midway through the first round of the playoffs, Cassidy made the switch from Thompson to Hill in net. He did that despite the fact that the series was tied 2-2, Thompson had a .921 save percentage in those four games, Hill hadn’t played in nearly two weeks and he hadn’t played particularly well in his last several starts to end the regular season.
Cassidy trusts Hill because he has consistently raised his level of play in the biggest moments, and Hill rewarded him by doing it again. He posted a shutout in Game 6 to extend Vegas’ season, and played great in Game 7 despite losing 2-1.
“He’s got a lot of confidence in his ability, but it’s a quiet confidence. It doesn’t come off as arrogant or cocky to any of us,” Eichel said of Hill. “His ability to go into big moments, and high-stress environments, and still perform at an elite level says a lot about him. I think that’s just his demeanor and personality, and it bodes really well for him as a goaltender.”
In Hill’s 19 career playoff games, he has a .932 save percentage, which is the second-highest since the 2004-05 lockout behind only Boston’s Tim Thomas (.933). His 16.6 GSAx in the playoffs are the seventh-most in the NHL since 2007 (when Evolving-Hockey began tracking the stat).
“I’ve always liked the big games,” Hill said. “I wouldn’t call it big pressure, because you’re out there doing what you love and having fun, but I love those do-or-die games.
“You wake up in the morning just feeling a little different. A little more skip in your step. A little more excited because you know the game means that much more.”
When considering the ramifications it could have on his next contract and the rest of his NHL career, this season could be the biggest moment Hill has faced yet. He has the opportunity behind a strong defensive team to prove he’s one of the NHL’s elite, and that he can handle a true starter’s workload.
He’s also on the short list of goalies who could start for Team Canada in the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February. Perform admirably there, and his reputation as a big-game goalie would flourish.
“All of that stuff will take care of itself,” Hill said. “I have an agent for a reason, right? I’m just focused on going out, playing my game and winning. Other than my entry-level deal, I’ve never had longer than a two-year contract, so I’ve almost had more contract years than not, so it’s whatever. Obviously it will be exciting whenever I sign, but I’m just looking forward to the season. There’s no reason to worry about it or stress about it.
“I’ve always kind of had that mentality to prove it. I’m going in with the same kind of mentality and try to have a big year, and more importantly try to get back to that Cup Final. When you get a taste of it, you want it that much more.”
(Top photo of Adin Hill: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
