It’s a large dedication to the breakout 27-year-old, who’s rapidly ramping up his case for his first profession Vezina Trophy nomination. He’s damaged away from Washington’s plan to alternate him and Charlie Lindgren between the pipes nightly, erupting for a .925 SV% and a couple of.09 GAA in 27 appearances with a near-spotless 22-2-3 report. Thompson earned seven straight begins earlier this month, permitting simply eight objectives on 179 photographs.
Regardless of the tandem workload, Thompson has been among the many Capitals’ most respected gamers and ranks second within the league in objectives saved above anticipated with 26.8, solely barely trailing Vezina favourite Connor Hellebuyck’s 27.5 mark, per MoneyPuck. It’s evening and day in comparison with what Darcy Kuemper gave the Caps final 12 months in an identical function, making the Washington entrance workplace’s choice to ship him to Los Angeles for Pierre-Luc Dubois and quit a pair of third-rounders to snag Thompson from the Golden Knights among the best of the summer time.
As anticipated, the extension quantities to a stratospheric increase for Thompson, who will now earn greater than twice per season than the whole worth of his earlier contract. He signed a team-friendly three-year, $2.3M dedication with Vegas in January 2022 when he was starting to emerge as an NHL possibility. Throughout that point, he’s been arguably essentially the most underpaid participant within the league with a 68-29-11 report, .915 SV%, 2.53 GAA, and 5 shutouts in 110 video games for the Knights and Caps over the lifetime of the deal.
The increase remains to be jarring for a netminder who’s solely began greater than 40 video games as soon as in his profession, however Thompson has already solidified his third consecutive 20-win season and can begin north of 40 once more this 12 months, barring harm. Among the many 29 goalies who’ve performed greater than 100 video games for the reason that starting of the 2022-23 marketing campaign, that .915 SV% ranks third – increased than stars like Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin and Juuse Saros.
He’s now Washington’s current and future between the pipes because it appears to be like to finish Alex Ovechkin’s profession on a excessive be aware and maintain the momentum going after he breaks the league’s all-time objectives report. If he stays wholesome, he ought to get the prospect to additionally head into the playoffs as his staff’s undisputed starter for the primary time in his profession.
Thompson’s deal runs by the 2030-31 marketing campaign, after which he’ll be a UFA at age 34. The Caps now have $69.375M tied up in 15 gamers for subsequent season, not together with pending UFAs Lindgren and top-four defenseman Jakob Chychrun. His $5.85M cap hit will rank fifteenth amongst netminders subsequent season as issues stand.
