Capitals’ commitment to goaltending should pay dividends this season
The best team in the Eastern Conference last season is poised for another great season, with much of the potential credit heading to the team’s two masked men.
It was quite the turnaround for the Washington Capitals last season. Along with Alex Ovechkin’s quest for history, goaltenders Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren carried a huge load, putting the team at the top of the Eastern standings, with Thompson helping the Capitals win their first playoff series since 2018.
The two goaltenders both signed contract extensions last season, with Thompson being locked up through the 2030-31 season at a cap hit of $5.85 million, while Lindgren is going to be paid $3 million over the next three seasons.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton explain why the goaltending situation in Washington and the team’s long-term commitment to the current netminders could be a recipe for success once again.
Tyler Yaremchuk: A lot of franchises would have been like, ‘Are we going to pay our backup $3 million? Do we want to commit that much to goaltending?’ Like, they might have said, ‘Logan Thompson’s really good. Let’s go just find a cheap, million-dollar guy somewhere.’ I think having both those guys locked up for the next three years…if these two goalies, Thompson and Lindgren, can continue to play the way they have now for, I mean, let’s call it what it is. It’s a full year. It’s almost 18 months. This is not an anomaly from either one of these guys.
Carter Hutton: Two wrong-handed goalies, they play it well. I think back to when I played it during an Olympic break, itt was a great year for my first year because I got way more starts and this is where you’re going to see this [year]…I’ll tell you what every single team their backups are going to be weighed upon right as you need to give guys rest and you’re going to get a little more starts than you normally would. So, it’s going to be valuable to have two guys that can kick in the NHL this year.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…