The Washington Capitals will soon have some decisions to make about

ARLINGTON Womens Patrick Marleau Jersey , Va. (AP) — The Washington Capitals will soon have some decisions to make about their future at goaltender.The Capitals signed backup Phoenix Copley to a $3.3 million, three-year extension Monday that keeps him under contract through the 2021-22 season at a salary-cap hit of $1.1 million. It’s a move that gives the defending Stanley Cup champions some stability in goal but raises questions about their plans.Starter Braden Holtby is only signed through the end of next season, and Washington has top prospect Ilya Samsonov and 2014 second-round pick Vitek Vanecek in the system. With Copley in the fold, the decision is looming between committing long term to Holtby and turning the net over to Samsonov.“It’ll work itself out, I think,” general manager Brian MacLellan said. “We’ll see how Samsonov comes and what our situation is cap-wise and the signings we determine to make.”Holtby won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender in 2016 and rebounded from a rough stretch last season to backstop Washington to the first title in franchise history. But he stands to get a significant raise from $6.1 million per year and will be 31 when his next contract begins.Given that the Capitals have already committed big dollars and term to center Evgeny Kuznetsov, wingers Tom Wilson and T.J. Oshie and defensemen John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov and also have center Nicklas Backstrom’s contract up after next season, there is no guarantee the room is there for Holtby.“It’s human nature to think about it,” Holtby said. “But outside of maybes, you have no idea. It’s a long ways away. A goaltender’s life can change pretty quickly, so you’ve got to stay in the moment and just play.”Samsonov was the 22nd pick in 2015 and considered one of the best goalie prospects in hockey. He got off to a rough start in his first season in North America with Hershey of the American Hockey League but the 21-year-old Russian has played much better since. With Vanecek also in the mix, it could pave the way for a trade before the Feb. 25 deadline.“I like Vitek, too. Samsonov is coming,” MacLellan said. “Holtby is Holtby. He’s an All-Star goalie. And Copley is finding his way as a good No. 2 Rasmus Andersson Jersey Womens , so I think it’s important for us to have depth as an organization, protect yourself on injuries.”Copley has exceeded expectations in his first season as a full-time NHL backup, going 10-5-3 with a 2.98 goals-against average and .903 save percentage. The 27-year-old from North Pole, Alaska, came into the year with a 4.32 GAA and .829 save percentage in two games with the St. Louis Blues.The Capitals turned to Copley almost by default after trading Philipp Grubauer to Colorado. Coach Todd Reirden said Copley has earned extra starts.“There are four different occasions that I can tell you about that we could’ve used Braden in that situation and we chose to use Pheonix and he produced right after it,” Reirden said. “That’s how you earn the coach’s trust and the players’ trust and the player battle for him hard because they know the effort he puts in every day in practice.”Teammates saluted Copley before practice when Reirden told them about the extension, which came after he made adjustments with goaltending coach Scott Murray since training camp.“A lot of it’s adjusting to the speed, and the little changes from league to league,” Copley said. “My plan is just to continue to get better every day, continue working with Scottie and just make sure my game is growing continually.” As Patrik Laine climbed the ranks of youth hockey in Finland, he learned about the NHL from video games.”I learned probably just about the players,” the Winnipeg Jets star said. ”Nowadays it’s super realistic, and you can just pretty much see how everybody is playing and how good they are.”It’s about to get even more real with the NHL following the lead of the NBA, NFL William Nylander Jersey , FIFA and other leagues in establishing a presence in a burgeoning esports market. The 2018 NHL Gaming World Championship, launched Friday, is a first step toward a potential version of the season-long NBA 2K League that’s set to begin in May or perhaps eMLS on FIFA 18.”You’re really both tapping into and expanding the existing fan base of the game,” said NBC Sports executive Rob Simmelkjaer, who got his introduction to hockey from playing ”NHL 94” on Sega Genesis. ”I think that’s something that the NHL can benefit from by putting esports front and center in the way that they market their sport.”Players will be able to match up 1-on-1 in EA Sports NHL 18 qualification rounds. That will be followed by regional finals in the United States, Canada and Europe on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and then the June 19 championship at Esports Arena Las Vegas during the NHL Awards with a prize pool of $100,000.The hope is to land new fans and connect with current fans in a different way.”This is really at its embryonic stage,” NHL executive vice president and chief revenue officer Keith Wachtel said. ”This is the most basic way for our fans to play. We’re also going to explore in the future the opportunity, and we’re going to test this with some of the guys at the regional tournaments and the final, maybe a two-versus-two or a three-versus-three.”WorldGaming and Collegiate StarLeague are already experimenting with gaming at movie theaters in Canada and are in the midst of the Snider Hockey Cup tournament on EA Sports NHL 18 with the finals taking place March 22 in Philadelphia, next to the Flyers‘ arena.”After the response we got to this tournament, we worked closely with the NHL and Electronic Arts for this program,” WorldGaming and Collegiate StarLeague CEO Wim Stocks said. ”They’re going to be in the marketplace with really cool esports programming in the very near future.”Sports-based esports have a long way to go to catch up to fighting games like ”Dota Zach Hyman Jersey ,” ”League of Legends” and ”Counter-Strike,” but National Amusements programming and corporate development executive Kevin Mitchell doesn’t believe the NHL needs to worry.”Console gaming is just now starting to take off,” said Mitchell, who also teaches esports at Emerson College in Boston. ”I think it’s really just coming up with an ambidextrous strategy on finding ways to integrate with their traditional fan base and finding ways to create cross-over engagement for this new generation that has been primarily consuming content online.”Mitchell thinks esports ventures are ways for leagues to make fans of young people who get their sports largely through their smartphones or computers. According to Newzoo’s 2016 Esports Consumer Insights, 28 percent of hockey fans are 21-35, while 49 percent of esports enthusiasts are in that age bracket.”We have a very attractive fan base,” Wachtel said. ”It’s young, it’s very tech-savvy, and millennials these days, which is really the gamer, are consuming sports in a much different way.”For a sport grappling with challenges of getting kids interested in hockey in places where ice time and equipment can be expensive and difficult to come by, this is another possible route. Mitchell said about 50 U.S. colleges now offer esports scholarships and expects more development at youth levels as they become more popular.NBC Sports in the U.S., Rogers Sportsnet in Canada and Viasat in Europe will promote the event, airing regional finals and the championship and putting highlights on TV around playoff games.How it goes will help determine the NHL’s next steps.”We don’t really have a statement on what the future holds other than we’re going to be active in one way Alex Burmistrov Jersey , shape or form,” said Chris Golier, NHL vice president of business development. ”We’re going to have a lot of involvement and conversation with a lot of the top gamers, as well, make sure that it’s fun, engaging, the content works and we’ll revise as we see fit going forward.”Esports might be a way for the NHL to grow its audience in China, where it is already broadcasting regular-season games and hosting exhibitions ahead of the 2022 Olympics.”China is a huge gaming population,” Stocks said. ”What better way to help bring the game of hockey to China than through video gaming? I think the NHL has a great opportunity.”—