The Washington Capitals made another move shortly after sending Beck Malenstyn to Buffalo. The team dealt a pair of their third round choices, the New York Islanders' third round pick in 2024 and the Caps own third round selection in 2025 for the work of goalie Logan Thompson.
Thompson is 27 years old and a Calgary native. He was orginally signed by the Capitals on May 21, 2019 and then signed to a Hershey deal at the same time spending that season in the ECHL with the South Carolina Stingrays in the Caps' system.
Big addition at goalie
Thompson shortly signed with Vegas as a free agent the following summer and spent much of the next two seasons with Henderson of the AHL, per WashCaps.com's Mike Vogel. He made one relief appearance in the 2020-21 season in relief of Marc-Andre Fleury in Minnesota.
Over parts of five NHL seasons the right handed goalie has a 56-32-11 record with four shutouts, a 2.67 goals against average and a .912 save percentage in 103 games. He carries a reasonable salary cap hit of $766,667, per Vogs.
Then with the 75th pick which was acquired from New Jersey in the 2024 NHL Draft, the Caps select Ilya Protas who is the younger brother of Aliaksei Protas, whom the Caps re-signed in the middle of the season.
This Protas had 51 points with 14 goals and 37 assists in 37 games with the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL. Listed as six foot four and 184 pounds, he led all USHL rookies in assists while ranking third in points.
The Caps added another third rounder with the 90th pick as they selected Eriks Mateiko who is the first Latvia born player in franchise history to be selected by the Capitals. Listed as six foot five and 210 pounds, he led the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL in goals with 23 while ranking second in points with 43 in 49 games played in 2023-24.
In the fourth round the Capitals selected Nicholas Kempf who is the fourth ranked North American goaltender by NHL Central Scouting, appearing in 37 games for Team USA's NTDP U18 team in 2023-24, posting a record of 23-7-0 with a 2.99 goals against average, a .897 save percentage and three shutouts.
We will have much more on the madness that is the NHL Draft later so stay tuned!