All hail Charlie (Caps Outsider)
When the Capitals moved of from Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov, they needed a proven starting goaltender. Fresh off of a Stanley Cup win with Colorado, Darcy Kuemper signed with the Caps as the answer for years to come. He’s signed through 2027-28 at $5.25 million a year.
Lindgren, meanwhile, signed what amounts to a backup goaltender contract, at $1.1 million a year for three years.
With the Capitals struggling to score goals this season, it’s more important than ever to limit the number of goals an opponent scores. While the defense hasn’t always made it easy on the goaltenders, either, the numbers through about half of the season have shown that the Caps are getting far more out of Lindgren than Kuemper.
Kuemper is 10-10-2 with a 3.27 GAA and .891 save percentage. Meanwhile, Lindgren, who just started back-to-back games for the first time in his career against the New York Rangers this weekend, is 8-4-3 with 2.24 GAA, and a .929 save percentage. This came after Lindgren having to sit out a couple of weeks with an injury.
Obviously, it doesn’t take more than a few bad starts for a goaltender to lose his regular starting spot. Even Braden Holtby didn’t start in the 2018 playoffs, as Philipp Grubauer was the hot-hand at the time.
Kuemper can turn things around, and needs to regardless of how well Lindgren is playing. Lindgren is signed through next season and will command a hefty raise that Washington likely won’t be able to afford. After next season, he’ll likely be replaced with Caps prospect Clay Stevenson, or Hunter Shepard if he’s re-signed. For now, Kuemper still is expected to be the main goalie throughout his contract.
In the meantime, at least for this moment, Lindgren is shining for the Caps and should continue playing more than the general backup games.
