The Washington Capitals lost Clay Stevenson on Monday in a highly-debated move as they tried to sneak the prospect goaltender through waivers before Opening Night rosters were due.
The Winnipeg Jets claimed the 2024 Calder Cup champion backup goaltender, adding much-needed depth to their netminding quandary. The Western Conference team is currently without Connor Hellebuyck, as the two sides are currently in conflict over the three-time Vezina Trophy winner’s offseason trade request. Before claiming “Mud” on waivers, the Jets’ backup goaltender was Domenic DiVincentiis — a seventh-round pick who has never played an NHL game.
Stevenson’s spot as the Capitals’ third goalie — one with a high risk of getting claimed on waivers — had seemingly been sealed months prior. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in early July that Capitals backup goaltender Charlie Lindgren was deemed “too important” to Logan Thompson’s success to trade and that “a backup making $3 million was something they could handle.”
Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir echoed some of that same reporting shortly before Stevenson was claimed on Monday, tweeting that Lindgren was “popular in the room” and “has played an important role in LT’s success.”
Washington knew losing Stevenson on waivers was a real threat, signing Cal Peterson to a professional tryout offer in August before training camp started to add depth.
“That is definitely a factor in [the PTO],” Capitals general manager Chris Patrick said earlier in the month. “It gives us some insurance in case something like that happens.”
Patrick also told reporters then that the team could consider carrying three goalies into the regular season, though that would have required exposing one of Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ethen Frank, or Dylan McIlrath to waivers and reducing the number of extra skaters available in case of injury.
The Capitals knew the risks of putting Stevenson on waivers, but may have thought they could sneak him through. Though Stevenson attracted similar buzz at training camp a year ago, he eventually cleared waivers and was able to spend the season in the AHL.
The decision to risk and ultimately lose Stevenson to waivers and stand so confidently behind Lindgren comes as the fan-favorite “Outlaw” had his worst season to date in the NHL.
During his age-32 season, Lindgren posted a record of 9-8-3 with a 3.52 goals-against average and .879 save percentage in 21 games. His GAA and save percentage were career lows among seasons where he appeared in more than one game. He posted just 5 quality starts in 20 opportunities.
A deeper look at Lindgren’s analytics suggests the Capitals backup had one of the worst goaltending performances in the entire league. Per MoneyPuck, Lindgren finished 76th out of 98 goalies in goals saved above expected (-5.3) and provided -0.88 wins above expected. Hockey-Reference listed Lindgren’s goals saved above average at -10.1.
GAR, a goals-above-replacement measurement, saw Lindgren finish the 2025-26 campaign with a GAR of -1.2, per HockeyGoalies.org, while Logan Thompson finished at +50.2 and Stevenson at +4.1, after his four spot starts in the NHL last season.
As Lindgren struggled, Stevenson, the Bears’ starter the last two seasons, has put together a resume suggesting he was ready for a bigger challenge. The 27-year-old went 3-1-0 in the NHL last season with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage.
The first start of his career, a 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 82 of the 2024-25 season, got rave reviews from Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery as the team rested players ahead of the playoffs after winning the Eastern Conference.
“I thought he was fantastic all night,” Carbery said then. “Just laid it on the line for us. First start, to be put in that situation and playing that game, he was really, really proud of the way that he fought and how he competed and how he played. He was fantastic.”
Stevenson, a 6-foot-4 goaltender, relies on solid positioning and making himself big in net to turn away pucks. He signed with the Capitals as a free agent after one season at Dartmouth College, where the New York Rangers also showed major interest.
During the 2023-24 season, Stevenson, combined with Hunter Shepard, set the Bears’ franchise record for the most shutouts in a single season by a tandem with 12 combined shutouts. Overall, Stevenson went 24-10-2 with a 2.06 GAA, .922 save percentage, and 7 clean sheets.
Stevenson followed that up with consecutive 18-win seasons in 2024-25 and 2025-26. His play last season was particularly impressive as the Bears transitioned to a much younger roster and struggled through major injuries, with Stevenson posting a 2.62 GAA and a .912 save percentage despite vast holes on defense.
Heading into 2026-27, Stevenson didn’t just seem ready for more; he also comes on a much better contract ($850k), costing $2.15 million less against the cap than Lindgren, who has two seasons remaining on a three-year, $9 million deal. “Mud” also catches left, which would provide the Capitals with a different look in net instead of having two righties in goal.
What helped keep Lindgren in DC, though, is his history, his vibes, and his acceptance of his role after years of toiling in the minors and waiting for his own chance.
Being a backup is a notoriously difficult position and hard to find a rhythm in, especially when a goaltender is barely playing and getting spot starts every few weeks. Thompson started 58 of 82 games for the Capitals last season and desires to play even more in 2026-27.
“He wants to play 70 games, so I’m probably going to have to manage that,” Carbery said with a smile. “Yeah, we have talked about it. I think we have a sweet spot where we see Logan at. Does that potentially change based on a couple different scenarios of things playing out through the season? Maybe, but we’ve got a general idea of where we want to see them in, of not getting to the threshold of where we feel like is overused and taxing them. So yeah, we’ve talked about it; we have a plan.”
Lindgren willed the Capitals into the playoffs during the 2023-24 season as free-agent acquisition Darcy Kuemper faltered. Throughout his time in DC, Lindgren has also had outings that have inspired the team.
His recent heroic appearance against the Philadelphia Flyers in the preseason was one of those Classic Lindgren performances as he turned away 32 of 33 shots in the “Baby Capitals” — a squad full of prospects and AHL players — 5-1 upset over the Flyers’ Opening Night lineup.
One of the Capitals’ most memorable victories last season also came with Lindgren in net, where his teammates had to carry him off the ice after a 3-2 shootout win over the Detroit Red Wings in January.
Lindgren is not only supportive and close friends with Thompson, but the team has also rallied around him in other ways, too. Lindgren’s country music cover of Eric Church’s hit “Talladega” has at times been used as the team’s victory song.
And while Stevenson has performed admirably for the Bears, his limited NHL experience makes him more of an unknown quantity for Washington. If Stevenson had taken Lindgren’s position and struggled to transition to an NHL role, the Capitals could have been left with a liability in net.
The Capitals’ judgment on when to allow young goalies to leave the organization has been mixed, but mostly good in recent history. Ilya Samsonov, Vitek Vanecek, nor Phoenix Copley has had major NHL success after moving on to other teams. The only ones who have are Semyon Varlamov and Philipp Grubauer, whom the Caps received trade returns for.
Grubauer was a Vezina Trophy finalist in 2021 while playing for the Colorado Avalanche, but has since seen his play slow with the Seattle Kraken. Varlamov has been an elite number-one starter at times in the 15 seasons since being dealt ahead of the 2011-12 campaign. Ironically, Logan Thompson, who once played for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, belongs on that list as well. Thompson left the Capitals organization ahead of the 2020-21 season and went on to win a Stanley Cup in 2023 with the Vegas Golden Knights as a backup before returning to the organization in a trade ahead of the 2024-25 season.
Ultimately, the question the Capitals likely asked themselves — beyond money or performance — is: if Thompson is going to get the bulk of the starts, would it be better to have a close teammate in net who eagerly accepts his role on the team or a hungry but untested prospect, a year away from unrestricted free agency and potentially likely to leave anyway?
Stevenson has been patient in Hershey, waiting for his time to shine, and his teammates seemed to love playing in front of him. But ultimately, his hard work and team-friendly salary was not enough to usurp Lindgren in a nuanced position battle where locker room vibes and past experience mattered.
