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Capitals Sign Logan Thompson To Six-Year Extension

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3:03 p.m: Washington has made the signing official per a team announcement.

1:30 p.m: The Capitals are close to a multi-year extension with pending UFA netminder Logan Thompson, Kevin Weekes of ESPN reports Monday. It’s a six-year commitment with a price tag of $5.85MM per season, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet adds, working out to a total value of $35.1MM.

PuckPedia provided the breakdown of the contract as follows:

  • Year 1: $2MM salary + $5MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 2: $4.85MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 3: $1.5MM salary + $5MM signing bonus – 15-team no-trade clause
  • Year 4: $3.5MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause
  • Year 5: $3MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause
  • Year 6: $2.25MM salary + $2MM signing bonus – 10-team no-trade clause

It’s a sizable commitment to the breakout 27-year-old, who’s quickly ramping up his case for his first career Vezina Trophy nomination. He’s broken away from Washington’s plan to alternate him and Charlie Lindgren between the pipes nightly, erupting for a .925 SV% and 2.09 GAA in 27 appearances with a near-spotless 22-2-3 record. Thompson earned seven straight starts earlier this month, allowing just eight goals on 179 shots.

Despite the tandem workload, Thompson has been among the Capitals’ most valuable players and ranks second in the league in goals saved above expected with 26.8, only slightly trailing Vezina favorite Connor Hellebuyck’s 27.5 mark, per MoneyPuck. It’s night and day compared to what Darcy Kuemper gave the Caps last year in a similar role, making the Washington front office’s decision to send him to Los Angeles for Pierre-Luc Dubois and give up a pair of third-rounders to snag Thompson from the Golden Knights one of the best of the summer.

As expected, the extension amounts to a stratospheric raise for Thompson, who will now earn more than twice per season than the entire value of his previous contract. He signed a team-friendly three-year, $2.3MM commitment with Vegas in January 2022 when he was beginning to emerge as an NHL option. During that time, he’s been arguably the most underpaid player in the league with a 68-29-11 record, .915 SV%, 2.53 GAA, and five shutouts in 110 games for the Knights and Caps over the life of the deal.

The raise is still jarring for a netminder who’s only started more than 40 games once in his career, but Thompson has already solidified his third consecutive 20-win season and will start north of 40 again this year, barring injury. Among the 29 goalies who have played more than 100 games since the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign, that .915 SV% ranks third – higher than clear-cut stars like Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin, and Juuse Saros.

He’s now Washington’s present and future between the pipes as they look to end Alex Ovechkin’s career on a high note and keep the momentum going after he inevitably breaks the league’s all-time goals record. If he stays healthy, he should get the chance to also head into the playoffs as his team’s undisputed starter for the first time in his career.

Thompson’s deal runs through the 2030-31 campaign, after which he’ll be a UFA at age 34. The Caps now have $69.375MM tied up in 15 players for next season, not including pending UFAs Lindgren and top-four defenseman Jakob Chychrun. His $5.85MM cap hit will rank 15th among netminders next season as things stand.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Capitals Ramping Up Efforts To Extend Logan Thompson

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The Capitals have “engaged more meaningfully” in extension talks with pending unrestricted free agent goaltender Logan Thompson’s camp recently, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports Friday.

Washington is aiming to have the soon-to-be 28-year-old signed, and off the market by the time the 4 Nations Face-Off rolls around in a few weeks, LeBrun wrote. Recent extensions for similarly-aged breakout netminders like the Avalanche’s Mackenzie Blackwood and the Kraken’s Joey Daccord mean the Caps are likely looking at a four-to-five-year commitment with an average annual value between $5MM and $5.5MM to retain his services – potentially even $6MM, Jamie McLennan of TSN told LeBrun.

That would be an astronomical range over Thompson’s current $767K cap hit, which he locked in when he signed a three-year, $2.3MM extension with the Golden Knights midway through his rookie 2021-22 campaign. The Caps needed a goalie last summer after they dealt Darcy Kuemper to the Kings in exchange for Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Thompson desired more playing time in his contract year after posting a .908 SV% in a career-high 42 starts and four relief appearances in Vegas last year. Washington moved to acquire Thompson on the second day of the 2024 draft, sending a pair of third-round picks Vegas’ way to provide an economical tandem partner for last year’s breakout option, Charlie Lindgren.

While Lindgren and Thompson rotated starts through the beginning of the season, Thompson has emerged as the bona fide 1A option for the upstart Caps. His sparkling 22-2-3 record in 26 games is backed up by a .925 SV%, which ranks third in the league among netminders with double-digit starts. Those 22 wins are also third in the league and are the most among goalies with under 30 starts, ahead of former teammate Adin Hill, who has 18 wins through 29 starts for the Knights.

Advanced statistics are also quite kind to Thompson, positioning him as the clear-cut runner-up to the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck for the Vezina Trophy. His 26.8 goals saved above expected are just 0.4 short of Hellebuyck in nine fewer games, per MoneyPuck, good for a league-leading 1.00 GSAx/60.

Expecting Thompson to maintain this level of play over the life of an extension is unreasonable. However, unlike a contract comparable in Blackwood, he’s established a high floor for his play at the NHL level. His SV% never dipped below .908 during his time in Vegas, and his GSAx has never finished in the red.

Since Thompson established himself as a full-time NHL option, concerns have revolved around his ability to handle a more significant workload, which he’s now quieting with the Capitals. He started a run of seven straight contests before Lindgren recorded a shutout last night against the Kraken, posting a .955 SV% in that span and a 6-0-1 record. Two of those wins were shutouts in back-to-back games against the Ducks and Senators, and he allowed just eight goals total during the seven-game stretch.

LeBrun reported earlier in January that the Caps had started preliminary extension discussions with Thompson and Lindgren, another pending UFA. They took both conversations slowly to avoid upset team chemistry by extending one before the other. While Lindgren has still been above average with a .904 SV% and 2.53 GAA, he’s three years older than Thompson and has a more inconsistent NHL track record. Thompson’s recent dominant stretch with an increased workload has proven he’s the more valuable option to Washington in the long term.

“I think Thompson has put himself into the conversation of being a top-tier Canadian goaltender, as well,” McLennan said. “Right now, you’ve got to see it for what it’s worth. The Caps traded for him. He’s delivered for them. They obviously like him. And he’s in [the] wheelhouse of his prime and getting better. Goalies from 27-32 continue to get better with age.”

As things stand, Thompson is the unquestionable No. 1 option on the UFA market among goaltenders this summer. Names like Hill, Lindgren, Kevin Lankinen, and Ilya Samsonov would move to center stage after a potential extension is announced.

Tom McVie Passes Away

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Former NHL coach and longtime Bruins scout Tom McVie has passed away at age 89, the team announced Monday. McVie played 18 seasons with various minor league clubs from 1956 to 1974, then was the head coach of the Capitals, Jets, and Devils in parts of nine seasons from 1975 to 1992.

McVie began his NHL career behind the bench in a difficult situation, taking over Washington’s bench partway through their second season in the league. He was tasked with molding together one of the worst rosters in league history, one that had finished 8-67-5 in their expansion season and recorded only 11 wins in year two. While he understandably didn’t make the playoffs in any of his three seasons in Washington, he did get the team out of complete embarrassment territory and was behind the bench for a 24-win season in 1976-77.

After being let go by the Caps following the 1977-78 season, McVie headed to the World Hockey Association to take over Winnipeg’s bench midway through their final season before the NHL-WHA merger. He guided the Jets to an 11-8-0 record to end the season before upsetting both the Nordiques and Oilers to win the final Avco Cup championship, with a roster that included future NHL All-Stars Morris Lukowich and Kent Nilsson.

McVie stayed with Winnipeg post-merger but was fired 28 games into the 1980-81 campaign after the team compiled a 1-20-7 record. He then headed to the Devils organization, where he’d serve as an AHL coach for many years but got a few cracks at the NHL head coach gig in the 1983-84, 1990-91 and 1991-92 campaigns. Boston picked up McVie as an assistant coach the following season, and after transitioning through a few different roles, they made him a pro scout in 1998. He held that role until retiring following the 2019-20 season.

We at Pro Hockey Rumors send our condolences to McVie’s family, friends, and peers.

Capitals Activate Charlie Lindgren, Assign Hunter Shepard To Minors

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The Capitals will welcome back part of their goalie tandem tonight against Pittsburgh.  The team announced that they have activated Charlie Lindgren off injured reserve and assigned Hunter Shepard to AHL Hershey.

The move effectively reverses the one made last weekend.  At that time, Lindgren had just suffered an upper-body injury and the placement meant he’d miss at least a week.  Fortunately for Washington, he’ll wind up only missing the minimum amount of time though he’ll serve as the backup and not the starter tonight.

Lindgren has been in a platoon with Logan Thompson this season and had a decent first half.  Through his first 21 starts, he has a 2.65 GAA (down slightly from last year) along with a .900 SV%, numbers that are better than the NHL average.  The 31-year-old is in the final season of his contract, one that carries a bargain $1.1MM price tag.  He’s well-positioned to more than double that on the open market this summer barring a significant collapse in the second half.

As for Shepard, he didn’t see any action with Washington while on recall with Thompson shouldering the workload in Lindgren’s absence.  The 29-year-old made his first NHL appearances last season, getting into four games while winning the Most Outstanding Goaltender award in the AHL.  However, he didn’t play to that same level in the first half of this season as Shepard has a 2.68 GAA and a .898 SV% in 23 outings with the Bears so far.

Capitals Have Had Preliminary Extension Talks With Lindgren And Thompson

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The Capitals are believed to have held preliminary talks about contract extensions with pending UFA goaltenders Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson, reports Pierre LeBrun in his latest column for The Athletic (subscription link).  The two have combined for a 2.42 GAA and a .912 SV% on the season despite having a combined cap hit of under $2MM, by far the NHL’s most economical tandem.  Both players are in line for substantial raises and could plausibly push for closer to $10MM combined on their next deals, a price tag Washington might not be able to afford.  LeBrun notes that the team is treading carefully in discussions, not wanting to risk disrupting chemistry if one gets an early deal and the other doesn’t while they also have defenseman Jakob Chychrun to contend with as a pending UFA who will need a considerable raise as well.  Knowing that, it might make more sense for them to prioritize getting Chychrun signed first and deal with the netminders later on.

Capitals Place Charlie Lindgren On IR, Recall Hunter Shepard

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The Capitals will be without Charlie Lindgren for at least the next week.  The team announced that they have placed the goaltender on injured reserve, meaning he will miss at least the next seven days.  Taking his place on the roster is netminder Hunter Shepard who was recalled from AHL Hershey.

Lindgren suffered an upper-body injury in the second period of Friday’s game against Montreal.  Brandon Duhaime pushed Nick Suzuki into the goalie, causing Suzuki to hit Lindgren’s head.  He stayed in the game momentarily but was eventually pulled with Logan Thompson taking over.

Lindgren signed with Washington as a backup goalie in 2022 but had a breakout showing last season, posting a 2.67 GAA, a .911 SV%, and a league-best six shutouts in 50 games.  With Thompson in the fold, Lindgren isn’t playing as much this season but has a 2.65 GAA and a .900 SV% in his first 21 starts, a decent start to his contract year as a pending unrestricted free agent.

As for Shepard, the 29-year-old made four starts for Washington last season in his first taste of NHL action.  He had a stellar showing in the minors last season, putting up a 1.76 GAA along with a .929 SV% in 34 games, winning the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL’s most outstanding goaltender.  However, things haven’t gone as well in the first half of this year as Shepard has posted a 2.68 GAA and a .898 SV% in 23 contests with the Bears.  He’ll serve as Thompson’s backup while Lindgren is out.

Charlie Lindgren Leaves Game With Upper-Body Injury

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Charlie Lindgren, one of the Washington Capitals’ two starting goaltender options, has left tonight’s game with an upper-body injury and won’t return (X Link). Lindgren left the game early in the second period of tonight’s game against the Montreal Canadiens after being on the receiving end of a collision with Montreal forward Nick Suzuki.

Several reports indicate that Lindgren has entered concussion protocol, which may delay his next start. It’s highly unlikely Lindgren will travel with the team for tomorrow night’s contest against the Nashville Predators and more information should be provided before the Capitals’ return home on January 14th.

The saving grace for Washington is they have a more than capable goaltender in Logan Thompson to carry the load for the foreseeable future. He’s been the Capitals’ best option this year with a 17-2-2 record in 21 starts with a .919 save percentage and a 2.32 goals-against average. Thompson has already reached 11.0 goals saved above average according to Hockey Reference which is 0.3 lower than Lindgren’s 50-game performance last year.

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Capitals Recall Ethen Frank For NHL Debut

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The Capitals recalled forward Ethen Frank from AHL Hershey on Friday, per a team release. He’ll make his NHL debut tonight at home against the Canadiens. Washington sent Ivan Miroshnichenko down to Hershey to make room on the active roster, general manager Chris Patrick said.

Frank, 26, is in his fourth season in the Capitals organization after Hershey inked him to a minor-league deal out of Western Michigan University late in the 2021-22 campaign. The 5’11” sniper landed an NHL contract from Washington for the 2023-24 season after exploding for 30 goals in 57 games during his rookie AHL showing with Hershey.

The Nebraska native has continued to establish himself as one of the AHL’s best goal-scorers, now totaling 80 in 161 games with Hershey over the past four years. He’s been a core piece of their back-to-back Calder Cup championships, including 10 goals in 18 postseason games in 2024, and has been named to the league’s All-Star Classic in each of his first two full seasons. In his graduate season with Western Michigan, he also led the entire NCAA in goals with 26 in 38 games.

Frank, who signed a two-year, $1.55MM extension in June to avoid restricted free agency last summer, will debut on the third line with Lars Eller and Taylor Raddysh, head coach Spencer Carbery said. It’s a fitting promotion for Frank, whose 20 goals in 35 games in Hershey this year rank second in the AHL.

Down goes Miroshnichenko, who had been up in the NHL since mid-November. The 20-year-old has been a healthy scratch with increasing frequency, though, only playing twice since New Year’s.

Washington’s first-rounder in 2022, Miroshnichenko has four points in 18 games in 2024-25 and 10 points in 39 games including last season’s totals. The 6’1″ Russian winger averaged just 9:21 per game during this season’s call-up.

Miroshnichenko was off to a hot start in Hershey before being added to the Caps’ roster, posting 14 points in 16 games. He’ll look to continue that momentum now as he waits for his next NHL opportunity.

With the moves, Washington’s active roster remains at the 23-player maximum.

Cristall Traded In WHL

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  • With the trade deadlines fast approaching in the CHL, there have been some notable moves made in recent days. The latest of those saw WHL Spokane acquire Capitals prospect Andrew Cristall, per a team release in exchange for a prospect and five draft picks including a pair of first-round selections.  The 19-year-old was rated by some as a first-round pick in 2023 although he ultimately slipped to 40th overall.  After putting up an impressive 111 points last season, Cristall is on pace to beat that this year with 26 goals and 34 assists in just 28 outings.  Already signed to his entry-level deal, Cristall will be playing professionally next season.

Alex Chiasson Announces Retirement

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A long-time middle-six scorer is officially hanging up his skates. Originally announced by himself and then shared by the National Hockey League Players’ Association, Alex Chiasson is retiring after spending a few years off the ice.

The Dallas Stars drafted Chiasson with the 38th overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft out of the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers program. Instead of immediately turning professional, Chiasson joined the Boston University Terriers for the 2009-10 NCAA season one year after they won the National Championship. Unfortunately, Chiasson would fail to reach the Frozen Four throughout his three-year tenure with Boston University.

He still became an effective playmaker at the collegiate level. He finished his NCAA career with 36 goals and 99 points in 108 games before signing his entry-level contract after the 2011-12 campaign. Chiasson started quickly with the AHL’s Texas Stars, scoring one goal and five points in nine contests.

Much of the next calendar year was spent in AHL Texas until Dallas recalled Chiasson in early April of the 2012-13 season to debut in the NHL. After scoring six goals and seven points in seven games to end the regular season, Chiasson became an NHL regular for the next decade.

Chiasson scored 13 goals and 35 points in 79 games during his official rookie season, which would be his last with the Stars. The following summer, he was acquired by the Ottawa Senators organization as a part of the return package for franchise icon Jason Spezza.

Although he became one of the better players from the trade for Spezza, his time in Canada’s capital was mostly disappointing. He finished his tenure in Ottawa with 19 goals and 40 points in 153 games before arduous contract negotiations led to a trade to the Calgary Flames in the summer of 2016.

After a solid year as a depth scorer for the Flames, Chiasson signed with the Washington Capitals for the 2017-18 season. He won his first and only Stanley Cup that year, scoring one goal and one assist in 16 playoff games for the Capitals.

It wasn’t until he joined the Edmonton Oilers that Chiasson experienced the most personal success of his career. During his time with the Oilers, Chiasson scored 42 goals and 78 points in 183 games, including a 22-goal campaign in the 2018-19 season.

Chiasson’s final game came on April 13, 2023, as a member of the Detroit Red Wings one year after spending the season with the Vancouver Canucks. He ended his career with 120 goals and 233 points in 651 games with another four goals and seven points in 37 postseason contests.

All of us at PHR extend our best wishes to Alex as he enters the next chapter of his life.

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