Washington Capitals ink Craig Anderson to PTO

The Washington Capitals have signed Craig Anderson to a PTO.

The goaltending situation with the Washington Capitals is beginning to crystalize. After the sad news about Henrik Lundqvist’s heart condition, the Caps needed to address their goalie department. They made it clear with the signing of Craig Anderson to a PTO.

A PTO is a professional tryout agreement and come Jan. 3rd the top storyline entering training camp will be the competition for the backup goalie spot. Expect Anderson to go up against Vitek Vanecek for a chance to backup Ilya Samsonov with the loser likely going to the taxi squad.

Anderson is 39 years old and spent the last decade with the Ottawa Senators. Anderson registered an 11-17-2 record with a 3.25 goals against average and a .902 save percentage in 34 games with Ottawa.

More from Capitals News

• Breaking down the Rookie Camp roster
• Hear what Magic Johnson said about Alex Ovechkin
• Capitals announce Rookie Camp schedule
• Breaking down the 2023-24 Capitals national TV schedule
• Capitals Alumni Weekend is coming back

Anderson can train with the Caps before the season begins and after that the coaching staff will make a decision on who will backup Samsonov. It looked like earlier in the week when general manager Brian MacLellan spoke to the media that the team was going to pivot toward a tandem of Samsonov and Vanecek.

Now with the Anderson signing, it looks like the Caps might go in a different direction. Don’t let the numbers mentioned earlier fool you. Anderson is a good goaltender but he played on some bad Senators teams. He hasn’t played on a team this talented like the Caps.

The best year Anderson had was during the lockout shortened season in 2013. That season saw him go 12-9-2 with a league best 1.69 goals against average and a .941 save percentage. He does have the potential to be a decent backup goaltender and a good mentor to Samsonov.

As for Sammy it will be his time to shine as the number one goaltender. With Lundqvist out, it puts a lot more responsibility on the young Russian netminder. Samsonov will be up for the challenge.

Training camp begins on Jan. 3rd and it’s a bummer practices won’t be open to the public so we could see this position battle take place firsthand. However, we trust Laviolette and the coaching staff that they will make the right decision on who will backup Samsonov.

The Caps open the season with games in Buffalo on two straight nights. It is likely Samsonov gets the opening night game while either Anderson or Vanecek gets the second game. Time will tell on who gets the backup spot.