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Breaking Down The Washington Capitals Goaltending Depth |
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Hello All,
We have talked about the offensive and defensive prospects already. Today, we are going to look at the Capitals goaltending depth from top to bottom. When taking into consideration the entire farm system and draft prospects, the Capitals may have the best goaltending depth in the entire league. Between the NHL and the AHL, the Capitals arguably have three goaltenders that can step into and compete for a 1A role.
Here are the Capitals goalies ranked starting from the best:
1. Ilya Samsonov – Samsonov was drafted in the first round in 2015. He was the first goalie drafted that year and he is the 2nd highest drafted goaltender in Washington Capitals history behind Olaf Kolzig. As the 2nd highest goalie drafted in franchise history, it makes sense that Samsonov has a lot hype surrounding his name. The 2019-2020 season was Samsonov’s first season in the NHL and he played quite well. Of 57 eligible goalies who played a minimum of 20 games, Samsonov ranked 25th in SV% (.913) and 11th in GAA (2.55). I talked about this in my “biggest team need” post but the Capitals defense was just atrocious last year. The team collectively gave up the 13th most “high-danger” chances against and the 8th most “high-danger goals against”. These are hardly stats you would expect to associate with the 5th best team in the regular season (90 points). While “high-danger chances” and “high-danger goals against” doesn’t always fall on the defense, it is a large component. The point I am trying to make here is that both Holtby and Samsonov struggled at times last year and I believe a large reason behind that was because the large amount of high-danger chances they had to defend. The Capitals have prioritized bolstering their defense in free agency and they have done a great job thus far. With a new coaching staff and system in place this year, I expect the defense to drastically improve and as a result, Samsonov should see less high-danger chances against and his stats should ultimately improve. Olaf Kolzig who now operates as the Capitals player development coach, recently said that Samsonov has the ability to be the next Andrei Vasilevskiy. Vasilevskiy took some time to develop behind Ben Bishop before finally taking over. Samsonov followed a similar development path behind Braden Holtby. Subjectively speaking, Samsonov looked incredible last year. He got stronger as the season progressed and was certainly our best goaltender down the stretch. Like every Caps fan, I have high hopes for Samsonov next season and am really excited to see him get more playing time.
2. Vitek Vanecek – The obvious choice might be to throw Lundqvist here as Lundqvist is a decorated Veteran and Vanecek will be playing for the Hersey Bears next season. But this is my blog and I will do what I want. Vanecek is my second ranked goalie! Vanecek was drafted in the 2nd round in the 2014 NHL Draft and was 4th goalie taken off the board. He has quietly developed into an outstanding goalie for the Capitals. In his 2019-2020 season with the Bears, he posted a .917 SV% and a 2.26 GAA. For three seasons in a row, he has improved his GAA and SV%, all while playing at least 30 games. Vanecek played in the NHL All-Star game and played so well that he won game MVP. Going back into his ECHL days with the South Carolina Stingrays, Vanecek played really well and racked up tons of accolades. Notably he had the second best GAA in 2015-2016, he won goaltender of the month in March 2016, and led the Stingrays to the ECHL Eastern Conference Final in the 2016 Kelly Cup Playoffs. Last season when the Capitals played their exhibition game in the “return to play” games before the 2019-2020 playoffs, it was Vanecek who split duties with Braden Holtby. Vanecek stopped 13 of 14 shots and all seven even strength shots. I should note Samsonov was injured. Anyways, I would honestly feel more comfortable with Vanecek operating as the 1B for Washington after seeing Lundqvist’s numbers over the last few years. Lundqvist is getting older and Vanecek is hitting nice sweet spot in his level of play.
3. Henrik Lundqvist – Most people probably have Lundqvist as the Caps second best goalie and for good reason. In his prime, he was great! However, Lundqvist has played poor as of late. Lundqvist has posted his career worst save percentages in three of his last four seasons. For five years in a row, he has set a record for career worst goals against average:
2015-2016: 2.48 GAA
2016-2017: 2.74 GAA
2017-2018: 2.98 GAA
2018-2019: 3.07 GAA
2019-2020: 3.16 GAA
Big picture…his level of play is not trending in the right direction. However, he did play for the Rangers last year who were one of worst defensive teams in the league. Worse than the Caps! The Rangers gave up the 9th most goals in 2019-2020. According to natrualstattrick.com, the Rangers gave up the third highest amount of “high-danger scoring chances against”. In addition, the Rangers were surprisingly ranked 12th best in “high danger goals against”. This tells me the Rangers were giving up a ton of chances, but their goalies actually held their own and didn’t let in nearly as much as they could have. On the surface, this stat actually favors Lundqvist quite well. With an improved defense in Washington, Lundqvist can certainly have a bounce back season. His veteran presence will be great for the continued development of Samsonov. This really was a home-run signing by the Caps (one-year deal $1.5million). That is such a low price for a goalie who could put up elite number in the right system. Lundqvist will certainly have his opportunity to shine in DC. Whether or not he can reverse his sharp decline in play is yet to be determined.
4. Pheonix Copley – On February 4th 2019, the Capitals signed Copley to a three-year $3.3 million deal. Copley was playing well for the Capitals and all signs pointed to a solidified role as the Capitals backup. Fast forward to October 2nd, 2019 and the Cap-strapped Capitals placed Copley on Waivers. Copley cleared waviers and was assigned the AHL Hersey Bears. The move while risky, saved the Capitals $175,000. So what happened? Well…Samsonov happened. In a very tight Cap situation, the Capitals essentially saw the writing on the wall with Braden Holtby. They were never going to pay Holtby. They simply didn’t have the money. With that in mind, the Capitals needed to get the hot goalie prospect some NHL playing time. Samsonov was ready and 2019-2020 was as good a time as ever to throw him in there. Unfortunately for Copley, he had to take a back seat to that. In Hersey, he posted a 2.47 GAA and a .905 SV%. His NHL stats are mediocre with a 2.98 GAA and .901 SV% in 2018-2019. In Hersey, Copley has been overtaken by the surging Vitek Vanecek. I don’t expect much from Copley moving forward. He could serve as the Bears #1 goalie in 2020-2021 when Vanecek moves up to the Capitals. He could serve as a mentor for Hunter Shepard if the Capitals decide to move him up to the Bears.
Thats all for today!!! Thoughts of the Capitals Goaltending depth? As always, thanks for reading!
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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