Whenever I've spoken to Washington Capitals general manager George McPhee about his goaltending situation over the past several months, he has never once bought into the idea that he needed to add a veteran puck stopper to the mix. He backed up that talk by not making that kind of addition at the trade deadline.
And, when discussing his young goaltenders, McPhee normally didn't stop at Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth. He almost always mentioned 21-year-old Braden Holtby, who has spent most of the season working the crease for the club's AHL affiliate in Hershey, Pa. On the farm, he has a 14-6-2 record with an impressive 1.98 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage.
