{"id":41002,"date":"2019-02-04T14:39:36","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T19:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=41002"},"modified":"2020-12-26T16:36:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T21:36:53","slug":"washington-capitals-sign-pheonix-copley-to-three-year-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/02\/04\/washington-capitals-sign-pheonix-copley-to-three-year-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Capitals Sign Pheonix Copley to Three-Year Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/capitals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Capitals<\/a> have signed goaltender <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/c\/copleph01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pheonix Copley<\/a><\/strong> to a three-year extension worth $3.3 million, or $1.1 million per season. This contract kicks in next season and carries him through the 2021-22 season. Copley was set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">THREE MORE YEARS FOR <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PheonixCopley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@PheonixCopley<\/a>! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ALLCAPS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ALLCAPS<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>The Washington Capitals have re-signed goaltender Pheonix Copley to a three-year, $3.3 million contract extension<\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MyophUkOGX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/MyophUkOGX<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sOhuYxw0EM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/sOhuYxw0EM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Washington Capitals (@Capitals) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Capitals\/status\/1092449080763129861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 4, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Caps Extend Pheonix Copley<\/h1>\n<p>This season, Copley has played in 19 games with 16 starts for the Capitals. He has a 10-5-3 record with a 2.98 goals against average and .903 save percentage and one shutout.<\/p>\n<p>Copley spent his first two NHL seasons with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/blues\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">St.Louis Blues<\/a> before signing with the Caps last summer.\u00a0\u00a0He has put up a 10-6-3 career record in 21 career appearances with 17 career starts. He also has a 3.08 goals against average, .898 save percentage, and one shutout.<\/p>\n<h2>What This Means for the Future<\/h2>\n<p>This is a smart move for the Caps and it gives <strong>Ilya Samsonov<\/strong> more time to develop in the AHL. The Caps have been giving Holtby a lot of rest this season and Samsonov isn&#8217;t ready to be a guy who could pick up 30 starts next season.<\/p>\n<p>Copley won 10 of his first 16 appearances, which included a stretch where he picked up six straight wins as a starter. Over his past three games, Copley has struggled giving up four, seven, three goals in his last three starts along with failing to record a .900 save percentage.<\/p>\n<p>Copley signing the extension means that Samsonov could need more time in the AHL with the Hershey Bears. He was signed to an entry-level deal in the summer after spending four seasons in the KHL. The Russian netminder is 10-11-1 with a 3.01 goals against average, .881 save percentage and two shutouts this season.<\/p>\n<p>The back-up job next year belongs to Copley unless he struggles massively down the stretch and loses the job to Samsonov at camp next season.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2019\/02\/goalie-pheonix-copley-of-the-washington-capitals-looks-on-in-the-picture-id1093418642.jpg\" alt=\"\">WASHINGTON, DC &#8211; JANUARY 12: Goalie Pheonix Copley #1 of the Washington Capitals looks on in the third period against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Capital One Arena on January 12, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Rob Carr\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Capitals have signed goaltender Pheonix Copley to a three-year extension worth $3.3 million, or $1.1 million per season. This contract kicks in next season and carries him through the 2021-22 season. Copley was set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season. THREE MORE YEARS FOR @PheonixCopley! #ALLCAPS The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2360,"featured_media":41006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,34],"tags":[3899,5738,2413,2569,955,1197,75],"class_list":["post-41002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capitals","category-news","tag-hershey-bears","tag-hockey-news","tag-ilya-samsonov","tag-news","tag-nhl-news","tag-pheonix-copley","tag-washington-capitals"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2360"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}