Washington Capitals: 5 trade-deadline rumors we’re glad that never happened

 #4 Anton Khudobin

The Caps were looking at the Dallas Stars intently not too long ago, sending scouts to their home games. Obviously the hottest rumor leading up to the deadline was whether the Caps would trade Ilya Samsonov or Vitek Vanecek and try to get their goaltending under control.

That never happened.

Anton Khudobin is a veteran net minder who’s 35 and he helped lead the Stars to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2020 bubble. Shockingly despite this, he hasn’t played that much if at all. In just nine games played he’s 3-4-1 with a 3.63 goals against average and a .879 save percentage.

For context let’s take a look at our goalies numbers. Vanecek is 17-9-5 (they weren’t going to trade him) with a 2.45 save percentage and a .917 save percentage. Better numbers not just than Khudobin but last season as well.

Now let’s look at Samsonov. He’s 19-9-4 with a 2.95 goals against average and a .899 save percentage. Again, better numbers Khudobin.

I’m actually kind of glad the Caps ran it back with Samsonov and Vanecek. We don’t know how this will work for the playoff push but at least we’ll know what we’re getting out of them. And losing is a team effort, it’s not all on the goalie.