For three seasons now, Charlie Lindgren has given the Caps consistently sturdy goaltending, playing the position with endless verve and with the heart and desperation of a fourth-liner. He’ll be doing more of the same for the next three seasons; the Caps announced Monday morning they’ve reached an agreement with LIndgren on a three-year contract extension worth a total of $9 million and carrying an annual salary cap hit of $3 million.
Coupled with Logan Thompson’s six-year contract extension five weeks ago, the Lindgren extension gives the Caps two NHL netminders under contract for the next three upcoming seasons.
“It feels really good,” says Lindgren of getting the extension done. “The business side is probably the toughest part of hockey. I think for everyone in this locker room, all they want to do is just play hockey and compete with their brothers and go and win hockey games. And then when the business side comes up – when you’re on an expiring deal – it’s just part of the program. But I’m really happy to sign a three-year deal here.
“I think you guys all know how I feel about this place and the people here from the trainers, the staff, [Ralph] Ricer’s security, teammates, it’s just a home run organization. I’m really happy to sign the deal.”
Coming into the 2024-25 season, the future of the team’s goaltending depth chart was in a bit of a state of flux, with only one goaltender – AHL Hershey's Clay Stevenson – signed beyond ’24-25. The Caps entered this season with Thompson and Lindgren – both as impending UFAs this summer -- as their goaltending tandem this season. The combined salary cap hit of the two goaltenders this season is just $1,866,667, the lowest in the NHL.
“I'm hopeful and fully expecting that it won't be the cheapest goaltending tandem a year from now,” said Caps senior vice president and GM Chris Patrick before the season got underway. “We have one goalie under contract [Clay Stevenson] after this season. So, I think it's a great opportunity for three guys [including Hunter Shepard] to come in and show us what they have. And hopefully we'll be able to figure out the direction we want to take in our goaltending department, based on how they play.
“To me, it's an open competition, rewarding players for how they perform, and trying to put the best group on the ice. We'll see how it plays out, but I think it's a good spot to have three guys competing for that position.”
Both goaltenders have been excellent this season, and both more than earned their extensions. And in a span of six months, the Caps have gone from goaltending being one of the most unsettled areas of their depth chart beyond this season to having it settled for the next three seasons.
With the extensions for both Thompson and Lindgren, the Caps’ combined salary cap hit for their two goaltenders next season will be $8.85 million, a figure that represents less than 10 percent of next season’s salary cap. As of right now, only the Capitals and the Bruins will go into next season with two goaltenders under contract for at least the next three seasons.
“For multiple reasons, I think it’s a great partnership,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery of his team’s goaltending tandem. “I think both guys work well together, they feed off of one another, they have a great relationship, so that part of it is excellent. And then I just think that both guys are such capable 1A goalies in this League, it gives us the luxury of being able to utilize both guys.
“They push each other, but they push each other in a respectful way. They both want to win, they both want the net, but they both also understand that it’s a team game and they push each other, but also understand the benefits of having two guys and being able to utilize both guys and keep them fresh. It’s a huge luxury for us to have for the next three years.”
Boston's current netminding duo of Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo is the only other one in the NHL that's signed and sealed for at least the next three seasons beyond the current one. Swayman signed an eight-year contract extension last fall, and he will be going into the second season of that pact this fall, a deal that carries an annual salary cap dent of $8.25 million. Korpisalo will be moving into the final three seasons of a five-year deal he signed with Ottawa in the summer of 2023.
The Bruins’ combined cap hit of $11.25 for Swayman and Korpisalo is the highest in the NHL for a pair of goaltenders this season, and the Caps will be coming in roughly $2.5 million under that figure next season, when the salary cap is expected to climb several million dollars above its current upper limit of $88 million.
Three years ago, Lindgren parlayed a strong season with AHL Springfield and a sparkling – if short – midseason stint with the St. Louis Blues into a three-year deal with the Capitals. In December of 2021 with Blues goalie Jordan Binnington unavailable because of a bout with COVID, the Blues recalled Lindgren from Springfield. He stepped in and started five games in a six-game stretch, winning them all.
After Binnington returned, Lindgren went back to Springfield where he helped lead the Thunderbirds to the Calder Cup Final. Weeks later, he inked a three-year deal to join the Capitals, where he has firmly established himself as a bona fide NHL goaltender.
“It's been such an unbelievable ride,” says Lindgren. “Honestly, my whole career, I look back at it and there's been so many peaks and so many valleys, and I think when you go through those valleys, you learn tough times make tough people. And I truly believe that.
“I look back at my first six years in Montreal and the taxi squad and how hard that was, and then, questioning whether I was ever going to get another chance. And then COVID happened, Binnington gets COVID, and [backup Ville] Husso gets hurt, and St Louis gives me a chance in December to play five games, and I just tried to seize the opportunity, and then had a great year in Springfield.
“And Washington, I was very fortunate and blessed they gave me a three-year opportunity that that summer, and I can't say enough good things about my time here, the people here, it truly is like a family feel organization from top to bottom. And I couldn't be more thrilled to sign for another three years here.”
Without Lindgren, the Caps would not have made the Stanley Cup playoffs last season. When he shutout the Bruins in Boston in a Feb. 10, 2024 game on last season’s Mentors’ Trip, it ended a six-game Caps losing streak (0-5-1) and his play the rest of the way helped propel the Caps into an improbable postseason berth last spring.
“Well deserved for Chucky; I’m really happy for him and his family,” says Carbery. “It’s a life-changing contract for him to earn nine million dollars over the next three years, and a big commitment from the organization.
“So, I’m real happy, especially for what he’s done for our team over the last year and three quarters. I was happy to see him get that contract and now feel real good about the goaltending position in this organization for the foreseeable future.”
