The Capitals will welcome again a part of their goalie tandem Saturday towards Pittsburgh. The crew introduced that they’d activated Charlie Lindgren off injured reserve and assigned Hunter Shepard to AHL Hershey.
The transfer successfully reverses the one made final weekend. Lindgren had simply suffered an upper-body harm at the moment, and the location meant he’d miss not less than per week. Fortuitously for Washington, he’ll solely miss the minimal period of time, though he’ll function the backup and never the starter Saturday.
Lindgren has been in a platoon with Logan Thompson this season and had an honest first half. Via his first 21 begins, he has a 2.65 GAA (down barely from final 12 months) and a .900 SV%, that are higher than the NHL common. The 31-year-old is within the ultimate season of his contract, carrying a discount $1.1M price ticket. He’s well-positioned to greater than double that on the open market this summer season, barring a big collapse within the second half.
As for Shepard, he didn’t see any motion from Washington whereas on recall, with Thompson shouldering the workload in Lindgren’s absence. The 29-year-old made his first NHL appearances final season, entering into 4 video games whereas successful the Most Excellent Goaltender award within the AHL. Nevertheless, he didn’t play to that very same degree within the first half of this season, as Shepard has a 2.68 GAA and a .898 SV% in 23 outings with the Bears to date.
