From Beauvillier to Wilson, we’re taking a look at and grading the 2024-25 season for every player who laced ‘em up for the Washington Capitals for a significant number of games during the campaign, with an eye towards 2025-24. Next up, Charlie Lindgren.
The Bio:
#79 | Goalie | Catches: Right
Height: 6’2” | Weight: 190 | Born: December 18, 1993
Birthplace: Lakeville, MN | Acquired: Signed as a free agent on July 13, 2022
Cap Hit: $1,100,000 (then $3M starting 2025-26) | Signed Through: 2027-28 | Expiry Status: Unrestricted Free Agent
The Scouting Report (via EP)
The Stats:
The Charts:
The Key Stat: Lindgren gave the Caps a “quality start” (a start with a save percentage greater than the League average for the year, or at least .885 in games with 20 or fewer shots faced) in just 17 of his 38 starts for a 44.7 quality start percentage, third-lowest in the League among the 39 goalies on the circuit who started at least 30 games (Samuel Ersson (42.2%) and Alexander Georgiev (36.2%) were lower).
The Good: For the second-straight season, Lindgren won 20 games for the Caps and actually won a higher percentage of his starts than a season ago (when he finished eighth in Vezina voting), and moved into the franchise’s top-10 for most wins among goalies, passing the great Ilya Samsonov back in early March. Lindgren gamely filled in for an injured Logan Thompson in April, starting five of six games prior to the season finale, ending his season on a high note with a 3-1 win over the Islanders in which he made 32 saves. And for a team that was fueled by vibes all year long, Lindgren was a big contributor, bringing that “agape love” (so much, in fact). For all of that, Lindgren was rewarded with a three-year/$9-million contract extension that kicks in this summer.
The Bad: On a team that got much better defensively from its 2023-24 form, Lindgren… did not. His save percentage dropped from .911 to .894 (and from .918 to .897 at five-on-five), and Chuckie allowed three goals or more on 24 separate occasions, the same number as a season prior in only 78 percent as many appearances. Whereas Lindgren stopped more shots than expected in 2023-24 (10.5 by HockeyViz’s methodology for counting such things), he allowed more than expected in 2024-25 (1.7, per HockeyViz). A season that essentially started with the Caps having a “1A/1B” stable of goalies became a more traditional starter/backup setup as a result of how each played… and each got a commensurate contract extension.
The Video:
The Discussion: Just how big of an aberration was Lindgren’s 2023-24 season? In two seasons in D.C. as a pretty clear backup (first to Darcy Kuemper in 2022-23 and then to Logan Thompson this past season), Lindgren has posted save percentages below .900 and saved fewer goals than expected, but was terrific in the year sandwiched in the middle there. Is it a question of needing a larger workload or something else? How would you like to see the Caps split the starts next season? Can Lindgren push for a 1B role?
The Vote: Rate Charlie Lindgren below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season – so if he had the best year you could have imagined him having, give him a 10; if he more or less played as you expected he would, give him a 5 or a 6; if he had the worst year you could have imagined him having, give him a 1.
