The Washington Capitals continued to reshape their roster Saturday, trading two draft picks to the Vegas Golden Knights for goaltender Logan Thompson.
With Darcy Kuemper traded away earlier this offseason, Thompson will take on a key role in the Caps' goaltending rotation with Charlie Lindgren.
Which GM did better in the swap? Here are our grades for both teams.
Washington Capitals
Grade: A-
One of the NHL's great debates is how much cap space to dedicate to one's goaltending. The Golden Knights famously won the Stanley Cup with a low-cost collection of netminders. The Florida Panthers just won it all with a goalie making $10 million against the cap.
The Capitals had one high-priced goalie in Darcy Kuemper ($5.25 million average annual value), whom they sent to the Los Angeles Kings in the Pierre-Luc Dubois deal. Now they've swung in the other direction and, in the process, might have the best tandem in the NHL in cost-to-performance ratio.
Thompson, 27, makes $766,667 against the salary cap this season, his last before unrestricted free agency. He was 25-14-5 for the Golden Knights last season in 46 appearances, with a .908 save percentage. He was 2-2 with a .921 save percentage in four postseason appearances. He had 4.6 goals saved above expected per Money Puck but minus-5.7 goals saved above expected per Stathletes.
The numbers were more in agreement for the goaltender that Thompson is joining in Washington, Charlie Lindgren. He had 10.5 goals saved above expected per Money Puck and 12.9 per Stathletes. Lindgren was a revelation last season with a 25-16-7 record and a .911 save percentage, leading the Capitals to an unexpected playoff appearance.
The Thompson deal gives the Capitals insurance in case Lindgren comes back down to earth a bit. Most importantly, it gives them a potentially solid goaltending duo that makes just $1,866,667 combined against the cap. When your goaltending is that good on paper and has a lower cap hit than Sonny Milano ($1.9 million), you're doing something right.
Vegas Golden Knights
Grade: B+
The Golden Knights have shown that sentimentality has no home in their offseason maneuvers, so naturally Logan Thompson was traded less than 20 minutes before he was due to have an autograph signing in Las Vegas.
This is a clear signal they weren't going to be in the Logan Thompson business after this season, so getting ahead of that for a pair of third-round picks isn't the worst idea. In fact, they used this year's pick on Pavel Moysevich, a 6-foot-5 goalie project from the KHL who we're sure Vegas goalie guru Sean Burke would love to develop.
As usual, the conversation for the Knights quickly turned from what they did to what comes next, considering they only have goalie Adin Hill ($4.9 million) under contract for next season. Rather than dabbling in unrestricted free agency, they flipped forward Paul Cotter and a third-round pick in 2025 for Devils goalie Akira Schmid and winger Alexander Holtz.
Schmid is an RFA who made only $850,833 last season against the cap. So the Knights found a goalie they won't have to pay might more than Thompson -- although he's not shown to be the goalie that Thompson is on a consistent basis. Still, the whole gambit bumps this from a B to a B+.