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Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
The Washington Capitals‘ offseason of change continued Saturday, with the club getting Logan Thompson in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Washington parted with a 2024 third-round pick and a 2025 third-round pick to get Thompson in a move that allowed the Capitals to reinforce a roster that was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, all while captain Alex Ovechkin continues to chase Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record.
Getting a goalie became a priority for the Capitals after they traded Darcy Kuemper in one of the offseason’s first major deals, which saw them receive top-six center Pierre-Luc Dubois from the Los Angeles Kings.
On Thursday, the Capitals made a trade with the Calgary Flames to get winger Andrew Mangiapane, who scored 14 goals and 40 points in 74 games during the 2023-24 season.
Adding Thompson now gives the Capitals a Stanley Cup winner and an NHL All-Star who went 25-14-5 with a 2.70 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage in the regular season. He also posted a 2.35 GAA and a .921 save percentage in four games before the Golden Knights turned to Adin Hill. The then-defending champions were eliminated in the first round by the Dallas Stars.
It now gives the Capitals a tandem of Charlie Lindgren and Thompson for the upcoming season. The club still has flexibility because both will be pending unrestricted free agents after next season.
As for the Golden Knights, Hill still has a year left on his contract while it appears they could already have Thompson’s replacement in the system in the form of Jiri Patera. Patera, 25, who played six games with the Golden Knights this season, has spent the last three seasons playing for the club’s AHL affiliate.
Vegas needed less than two hours to find Thompson’s replacement as it received goalie Akira Schmid and forward Alexander Holtz from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for forward Paul Cotter and a 2025 third-round pick.
Schmid regressed in the 2023-24 season after the promise he showed a year earlier. Schmid went 5-9-1 with a 3.15 GAA and a .895 save percentage after his postseason performances in 2023 saw him finish with a 2.35 GAA and a .921 save percentage.
The lack of consistency led to Schmid being demoted to the AHL where he had a 3.06 GAA and a .894 save percentage.
Holtz was the seventh pick of the 2020 NHL Draft. He’d gone back and forth between the NHL and AHL for a few seasons before becoming a full-time NHL player in 2023-24. He finished with 16 goals and 28 points in 82 games.
Holtz, who has one year left at $894,167, now gives the Golden Knights a total of 11 forwards under contract.
Cotter gives the Devils someone who could either provide depth to the bottom six or possibly challenge for a middle-six role, having scored seven goals and 25 points in 76 games in 2023-24 after scoring 13 goals in 55 games in 2022-23.
Source: www.espn.com