ARLINGTON, VA — After a breakout year in 2024-25, Logan Thompson returned to DC this fall with a shiny new contract and high expectations. Thompson’s debut season in Washington had been a smashing success, seeing him rank fourth in Vezina Trophy voting with a league-leading 26.0 goals saved above expected, a 2.49 goals-against average, and a .910 save percentage, but questions remained as to whether he could replicate that performance.
If the desire to prove himself wasn’t enough motivation, Thompson is also looking to impress his home country ahead of the 2026 Olympics in Milan. Team Canada has passed on Thompson several times in the run-up to the Games, leaving him off the roster for both the 4 Nations Face-Off last season and its National Teams Orientation Camp over the summer.
Thompson will go head-to-head against some of his biggest competition for the Olympic job on Wednesday night: St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington. Binnington was Canada’s starter at the 4 Nations, leading the team to victory, and he will be the name to beat if Thompson hopes to go to Milan.
Thompson’s history with Team Canada’s coaching staff may be part of the reason he’s been overlooked — assistant coaches Bruce Cassidy and Pete DeBoer both served as head coaches of the Vegas Golden Knights before Thompson requested a trade from the team — but his play has made him harder and harder to ignore.
“At this point, if he doesn’t make Canada’s Olympic team, it is for something other than his play,” an NHL awards voter from the Professional Hockey Writers Association told ESPN. “He is the best Canadian goaltender, and it’s not particularly close.”
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery has worked with both goaltenders, spending a season with Binnington while serving as assistant coach of the Providence Bruins in 2017-18. He acknowledged his former player’s accomplishments when asked to make his case for Thompson’s Olympic candidacy, but pointed to Thompson’s success as evidence that he has earned a second look from Team Canada.
“I would say this. Binner obviously has had a great track record,” Carbery said Wednesday. “He’s won a Stanley Cup, won the 4 Nations last year with Team Canada. But the way that Logan Thompson has played last year and has backed it up again this year, good start to the season, he’s doing everything he needs to do to make a strong argument of why he should represent Canada at the Olympics.”
Though Thompson put up some of the best numbers in the league last season, he did so in a tandem role, alternating games with Charlie Lindgren for most of the campaign, and on a Capitals team that sailed its way to the top of the Eastern Conference. He has neither mitigating factor this season. Thompson has started in eight of Washington’s 12 games this season, with all but one of his games as backup coming in the second half of a back-to-back, and the Capitals have scuffled their way to a middling 6-5-1 record.
While many of the Capitals have struggled to start the year, Thompson has continued to hold firm in net. His 9.2 goals saved above expected — more than a goal per game — ranks third in the NHL, per MoneyPuck, and he leads the league in both goals against average (1.51) and save percentage (.935).
Binnington, meanwhile, has had a far less successful season thus far, albeit on a Blues team that’s 31st in the standings. He’s saved four goals below expected, with a goals-against average of 3.08 and a save percentage of just .868. In his five starts during the Blues’ recent seven-game losing streak, Binnington gave up 17 goals on 110 shots.
