Corey Masisak The Washington Times - September 16, 2008, 10:52AM

Assuming Jose Theodore and Brent Johnson are healthy, the Caps have three goalies for two spots with the Hershey Bears. One option is send one to South Carolina of the ECHL, but a more likely one is loaning a guy to another AHL team. It isn’t without precedent (some guy named Olie Kolzig was once loaned out) and it can be a way to get everyone ample playing time. With that in mind, here is a look at the other 29 goaltending situations and potential places for the Caps to send a netminder:

ANAHEIM

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NHL: J.S. Giguere, Jonas Hiller

AHL: David LeNeveu, J.P. Levasseur

ATLANTA

NHL: Kari Lehtonen, Johan Hedberg

AHL: Ondrej Pavelec, Dan Turple

BOSTON

NHL: Tim Thomas, Manny Fernandez

AHL: Tuukka Rask, Kevin Regan

BUFFALO

NHL: Ryan Miller, Patrick Lalime

AHL: Jhonas Enroth, Adam Dennis

CALGARY

NHL: Mikka Kiprusoff, Curtis McElhinney

AHL: Leland Irving, Matt Keetley

CAROLINA

NHL: Cam Ward, Michael Leighton

AHL: Justin Peters, Daniel Manzato

CHICAGO

NHL: Cristobal Huet, Nikolai Khabibulin

AHL: Corey Crawford, Antti Niemi

COLORADO

NHL: Peter Budaj, Andrew Raycroft

AHL: Jason Bacashihua, Tyler Weiman

COLUMBUS

NHL: Pascal Leclaire, Fredrik Norrena

AHL: Steve Mason, Dan LaCosta

DALLAS

NHL: Marty Turco, Tobias Stephen

AHL: Matt Climie, Mitch O’Keefe

DETROIT

NHL: Chris Osgood, Ty Conklin

AHL: Jimmy Howard, Daniel Larsson

EDMONTON

NHL: Mathieu Garon, Dwayne Roloson

AHL: Jeff Drouin-Deslauries, Devan Dubnyk

FLORIDA

NHL: Tomas Vokoun, Craig Anderson

AHL: Chris Beckford-Tseu, Tyler Plante

LOS ANGELES

NHL: Jason LaBarbera, Erik Ersberg

AHL: Jonathan Bernier, Jonathan Quick

MINNESOTA

NHL: Niklas Backstrom, Josh Hardin

AHL: Nolan Schaefer, Barry Brust

MONTREAL

NHL: Carey Price, Jaroslav Halak

AHL: Marc Denis, Cedrick Desjardins

NASHVILLE

NHL: Dan Ellis, Pekka Rinne

AHL: Drew MacIntyre, Mark Dekanich

NEW JERSEY

NHL: Martin Brodeur, Kevin Weekes

AHL: Scott Clemmensen, Jeff Frazee

N.Y. ISLANDERS

NHL: Rick DiPietro, Joey MacDonald

AHL: Yann Danis, Peter Mannino

N.Y. RANGERS

NHL: Henrik Lundqvist, Stephen Valiquette

AHL: Miika Wiikman, Matt Zaba

OTTAWA

NHL: Martin Gerber, Alex Auld

AHL: Brian Elliott, Jeff Glass

PHILADELPHIA

NHL: Martin Biron, Antero Nittymaki

AHL: Scott Munroe, Michael Teslak

PHOENIX

NHL: Ilya Bryzgalov, Mikael Tellqvist

AHL: Al Montoya, Josh Tordjman

PITTSBURGH

NHL: Marc-Andre Fleury, Dany Sabourin

AHL: John Curry, David Brown

SAN JOSE

NHL: Evgeni Nabokov, Brian Boucher

AHL: Thomas Greiss, Taylor Dakers

ST. LOUIS

NHL: Manny Legace, Chris Mason

AHL: Marek Schwarz, Ben Bishop

TAMPA BAY

NHL: Mike Smith, Olie Kolzig

AHL: Karri Ramo, Riku Helenius

TORONTO

NHL: Vesa Toskala, Curtis Joseph

AHL: Justin Pogge, James Reimer

VANCOUVER

NHL: Roberto Luongo, Curtis Sanford

AHL: Cory Schneider, Julien Ellis

So what to make of that? Well, the Caps aren’t going to want to send one of these guys to a team that has an established No. 1 guy at the AHL level or a top prospect that the team wants to give 50-60 starts. With that in mind I think the top candidates are Dallas, Nashville and Minnesota and maybe the N.Y. Rangers. But I would also assume a Western Conference organization would be preferable to a team from the East (or should I say a Western team is more likely to be OK with helping to develop one of Washington’s goalies).