No one believed in Logan Thompson, so he bet on himself. It's put him among the NHL's best as he makes waves with the Washington Capitals.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Days after the Washington Capitals raised their Stanley Cup banner to the rafters, Logan Thompson was in St. Catherine's, Ont., a 21-year-old college student left staring his future in the face.
Attending Brock University, all Thompson wanted was a chance to play hockey. It was looking unlikelier by the day, though. Even though he got an invite to a Capitals development camp, he'd gone undrafted after four years in the WHL with the Brandon Wheat Kings, and no one had trouble telling him that he wasn't going to make it.
One of those critics? Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon, who said that if Thompson did somehow make it to the NHL, he'd buy him a case of beer to congratulate him.
"(I was) being told, 'You should go to school, you’re not going to play pro,' " Thompson said. "There were times where I wanted to quit, because I was just kind of over it."
And, like any college kid, he also needed money.
"For fun or food or groceries, anything to get a couple bucks," he quipped. "I had to decide on what my future was and if I wanted to take school more seriously and get a part-time job."
Thompson considered a little bit of everything and landed on the possibility of focusing more on school while trying to sign up to be an Uber Eats driver. However, his car wasn't up to the task, let alone the weather. He also hated the thought of more schoolwork.
Perhaps it was all a sign, though; Thompson wasn't up to the task, either.
After all, quitting didn't sit right with the Calgary native, who was only at Brock in the first place to play for coach Marty Williamson, one of the few in his corner.
That doubt can be enough to stifle anyone's passion, to put a period on the end of someone's bid for a career.
"It was definitely upsetting," Thompson said. "I just thought I was right there. I just never seemed to get any attention. No one really seemed to believe in me, whether that was my play style or, I don't know."
There was something inside of Thompson, though, that wasn't letting him leave his dream behind. So, with Uber Eats off the table and not being overly enthusiastic about putting more focus into school work, Thompson went back to the rink and kept at it.
"It says a lot about his mental strength, that he kind of stayed with it," teammate Brandon Duhaime said.
His play put him back on the map, as he boasted a .934 save percentage that ultimately landed him an ECHL deal. And that contract, that one piece of paper, was all he needed to build his own legacy.
"Once I had a successful season (in university), I wanted more, and decided to take a Coast deal," Thompson said. "Once I figured out, 'Hey, I can play in this league,' this hunger for more was always there."
That's when one of Thompson's top critics in McCrimmon could no longer deny him, and gave him his first shot at the NHL, signing him to an entry-level deal with the Vegas Golden Knights — though he still has yet to buy him that case of beer.
Thompson finally got the chance he was looking for, but as he mentioned, that hunger didn't fade.
"I wanted to keep pushing myself," Thompson said. "Got a couple games in the NHL: 'OK, now I don't want to be a goalie that's stuck in a backup position, I want to be a starter.' You want more… maybe that's the type of person I am."
It then got to the point where Thompson wasn’t even satisfied with just getting looks and winning games.
He didn't want to be a top NHL goaltender, but the top NHL goaltender, right up there in conversation with the best names in the game.
"I wanted to be known as a big-game player and a game-changer in this league. You talk about a lot of goalies like Hellebuyck, Shesterkin, Vasilevskiy, Bobrovsky," Thompson listed. "I wanted to push myself and I wanted to be in the conversation with those guys. That’s the standard I hold myself to."
That mental resilience is something that the Capitals, which traded for him at the 2024 draft to bring in a familiar face packed with potential, cite as being fundamental to his success.
"He's taken that to another level. His level of focus… that is a very, very mentally strong person," coach Spencer Carbery said. "His mental toughness and just his mental fortitude and his focus, all of the things that go into the mental side of the game — which is so critical for goaltenders — he continues to improve."
It's just part of the job for Thompson, though, who is thriving in his second year in D.C.
"The biggest thing for me is I just want to win a hockey game… that's what drives me," Thompson said. "I hate the feeling of losing. Sometimes I dwell a little too much. The hunger to win is kind of an easy call."
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Thompson finished fourth in Vezina voting last season. Through 24 games so far, he leads all goaltenders with at least 20 games played in save percentage (.925) and goals-against average (2.00), while he also recently picked up his 100th career win. The 28-year-old is also making it harder and harder for Team Canada to ignore as they put together their Olympic team.
"It's fun watching him and what he's doing, from where he's been to where he's gotten to right now. It's pretty special to watch," Aliaksei Protas, who had first met a "quiet" Thompson and roomed with him at development camp in 2019, said. "He's been working hard to get here, now he's one of the best goaltenders in the league. That's so great to see, he absolutely deserves that."
His numbers — including 100 career wins and counting — and his success are things Thompson could have never imagined. All it took, though, was a bet on himself, one that was huge at the time, but now makes him smile.
"I'm happy I stuck with it," he shrugged.
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