The Washington Capitals were caught by surprise on Thursday when Henrik Lundqvist announced he would be sitting out the 2021 season because of a heart condition. The Caps were fortunate to get the 38-year-old in free agency for $1.5 million in October after he was bought out by the Rangers and deciding to let Braden Holtby walk, but now with the season nearing, GM Brian MacLellan has a dilemma in goal.
Sophomore Ilya Samsonov is healthy after missing the playoffs in August with an injury, but the 23-year-old has only 26 games of NHL experience and it was expected that Peter Laviolette was going to rely heavily on Lundqvist.
Washington internally has Phoenix Copley (29 games in the NHL with STL and WAS) and 24-year-old Vitek Vanecek as potential backups, but that would mean putting all their chips on Samsonov.
So does MacLellan go out in free agency to sign Jimmy Howard, Craig Anderson, Ryan Miller or Cory Schneider or make a trade??
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