Ontario Reign: Erik Portillo’s Season Review

Back to his season.

After the season’s opening weekend, Portillo missed the next three games (two weeks) with an illness. When he returned, he allowed one goal in two of his next four starts (the other two, he allowed four goals). It’s hard to fault Portillo for his slow start because the Reign were in a funk as a whole, with eight players making their Reign or AHL debuts on opening weekend, which isn’t uncommon to see in the AHL.

As the team found their stride, so did he. Portillo made nine starts (12/7 – 1/12) after his NHL debut and had seven games where he allowed three goals or less (five of those were two or less), good enough for a .913 save percentage. If you add in the game where he came in relief for Copley, it bumps down a tad to a .909 save percentage. Pretty solid despite still needing to work on his rebound control, that was a notable area for improvement in year one.

Then the long slump happened. The following eight starts saw Portillo surrender four or more goals in five of them. It was a rough stretch that saw him accumulate an .847 save percentage that tanked his overall save percentage. Of course, not every goal allowed was his fault, but during that stretch, the rebound control didn’t look like it improved, and there were instances of shots that were beating him cleanly — ones he would stop last year. Hearing Reign head coach Marco Sturm mention Portillo’s competitive fire in the past, you know how badly Portillo wanted to get out of that rut himself.

I thought his last game of that slump was his best game in quite some time. He made 24 saves on 26 shots in a 3-2 overtime win over the Calgary Wranglers. However, we’ll never know if he turned the corner because an injury would sideline him the rest of the way.

So, when you look at the overall season, it was a weird one mixed with good and bad, but nowhere near the season prior. The Kings will have a spot open to backup Kuemper, with David Rittich set to be a free agent. It was a spot that looked like it would be Portillo’s, but missing the last three months with an injury and the season he had, I’m not sure that will be the case. It still could be, and he might have a chance to fight for that spot in training camp if the organization feels he is ready, but remember, Rob Blake isn’t the General Manager and calling the shots anymore, so we’ll have to see what new GM Ken Holland decides to do in net.

Whether he starts the 2025-26 season with the Reign or Kings, we’ll see how Portillo bounces back from this season and his injury. As for areas of improvement, I like to see Portillo’s rebound control improve and be more poised in net. There are times he tends to move around a lot, which can negatively impact his rebound control. It’ll take time because he will be returning from injury (unknown) and goalies take a while to develop in general. It will still be a pivotal year for Portillo, who will be 25 when training camp starts, and Carter George and Hampton Slukynsky waiting in the wings, who continue to impress at the junior and college level.