Washington Capitals Shouldn't Squander Their Goalie Situation

Heading into this season, the Washington Capitals were in a bit of flux regarding their goaltending.

Capitals braintrust added Logan Thompson to serve as one-half of their tandem with Charlie Lindgren – and the move has paid off in spades.

For the low cost of $766,667, Thompson has been one of the NHL’s best bargains, posting a 2.09 goals-against average and .925 save percentage in 27 appearances.

Together with Lindgren (.905 SP, 2.53 GAA), the Capitals have one of the NHL’s better netminding duos. But the hard part is coming – deciding what to do with both goalies before they become UFAs this off-season.

The 31-year-old Lindgren is four years older than Thompson, but Lindgren is earning $1.1 million this year. If either goalie makes it to the open market, they will be in demand and get major raises. So, instead of waiting until the off-season, the Capitals should try to get at least one of the two goalies locked up to a long-term contract in the next few weeks.

Certainly, the Colorado Avalanche showed teams don’t have to wait all that long to give a goaltender the financial security they’re looking for. Avs brass gave Mackenzie Blackwood a five-year extension with a $5.25-million cap hit after four games with his new team.

While Washington doesn’t have to dole out that much money and term to keep a goalie around, the financial bar for a starting goalie is significantly more than the Capitals are paying Lindgren and Thompson this year.

Now, there’s no urgency to sign Thompson and Lindgren right away, but if the Caps can persuade one to sign a new deal, they’ll have more leverage in getting the second goalie under contract. While this could make things slightly awkward for Thompson or Lindgren if only one of them signs a new deal and the other has to wait until the summer, the alternative of leaving both goalies waiting for a new deal seems like taking the tandem for granted.

Ideally, Washington would be able to keep both Lindgren and Thompson over the long haul. But we’ve seen teams make the wrong investment in goalies – hello, Pittsburgh Penguins and Tristan Jarry – so there does need to be some caution from the Capitals in deciding who gets a contract extension first.

That said, it feels pretty clear at the moment that Thompson is that goalie. TSN's Pierre LeBrun reported talks for both goalies, but Thompson's agent and the team have been talking lately with some possible urgency before the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

It makes sense. Lindgren's been on the team for three seasons now and most recently posted a 22-save shutout on Thursday, but Thompson's numbers just don't lie. Five more games played, twice as many wins (22 to 11), a higher save percentage, a higher goals-against average and a much higher goals-saved-above-expected rate (0.998 saved above expected per 60 minutes to Lindgren's 0.098, per moneypuck.com).

Any goaltender extension is a gamble of sorts, but the Capitals have made a wise gamble on their goalies this year. It’s now all about arriving at a dollar amount that preserves their cap flexibility. You don’t want to say it’s key for Washington to pick Thompson over Lindgren (or vice-versa), but Thompson is the younger of the two and could theoretically be relied on for a longer period of time than Lindgren.

Either way, getting at least someone signed is an important piece of business for the Capitals. Keeping both would be great, but waiting on both gets riskier by the day.

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