The first time Darcy Kuemper played for the Kings, he played well. He just didn\u2019t play often.<\/p>\n
As the backup to Jonathan Quick, who became the winningest American-born goalie in NHL history, Kuemper saw less ice time than the Zamboni driver in the half-season he spent in L.A. Yet he lost just once in regulation in 15 starts and had a better save percentage and goals-against average than Quick.<\/p>\n
Which is to say he played well enough to start. But he wasn\u2019t going to do that with the Kings.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoalie\u2019s a tough position,\u201d Kuemper said. \u201cOnly one guy gets to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
So rather than let Kuemper, then 27, languish on the end of the bench, Rob Blake, the Kings\u2019 first-year general manager, traded him to Arizona with 22 games left in the 2017-18 season. It was the move that redefined a career that has come full circle, with Kuemper returning to the Kings last summer to put together one of the best seasons in the NHL.<\/p>\n
A backup in parts of six seasons in Minnesota and L.A., Kuemper became the No. 1 goalie for the Coyotes, trading the one-year, $650,000 contract he had with the Kings for a two-year, $3.7-million extension in Arizona, where he finished fifth in voting for the Vezina Trophy, awarded to the NHL\u2019s top goaltender.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically what happened was an opportunity,\u201d Kuemper said. \u201cBlake met with me and I was like \u2018I don\u2019t want to leave but I want to play more. I want to be a No. 1 in this league.\u2019 So the trade happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a totally altruistic move on the Kings\u2019 part. Kuemper\u2019s contract would have ended when the season did, so by trading him, Blake assured the team it would get something in return.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s the thought that counts, Kuemper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m forever grateful for him providing me with that opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cHe definitely didn\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now 35, he\u2019s repaying that gratitude. After reuniting with the Kings in a trade primarily remembered for ridding the team of underperforming and overpaid center Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kuemper has a .919 save percentage that ranks third in the NHL among goalies with at least 30 starts while his GAA of 2.19 is second.<\/p>\n
Plus he\u2019s been getting better as the season has worn on. Since returning from a lower-body injury on Dec. 7, Kuemper had gone 12-4-3 heading into Saturday\u2019s game with Utah, the Kings\u2019 first after the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably been our backbone,\u201d Kings coach Jim Hiller said. \u201cHe\u2019s just been very, very consistent. That\u2019s really what you want in a goaltender: just to be pretty consistent.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop the ones that we think he should stop, make a couple of great saves every once in a while and we\u2019ll be good with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuemper, a rangy 6-foot-5, butterfly-style goalie with good puck-handling skills, has done more than that. He\u2019s turned a position that was a question mark, if not a liability, at the end of last season into a strength for a team with a defense-first mindset. None of that surprises Bill Ranford, the Kings\u2019 director of goaltending, who had a say in the decision to bring Kuemper back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe numbers that he had the first time around were very good,\u201d Ranford said of Kuemper, who was an All-Star in Arizona and won a Stanley Cup in Colorado before suffering through two injury-plagued seasons in Washington, where he lost more games than he won and registered the lowest save percentage and highest GAA of his 13-year career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew our system, the way we like to play. He\u2019s familiar with the organization. It made for a little bit more seamless transition. And then, obviously, from my first time around with him, I felt I had an understanding of what he\u2019s trying to do to get his game back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kuemper, who learned of the trade when his wife, Sydney, knocked on the bathroom door with the news while he was showering, said the fact the Kings had the confidence to bring him back after two poor seasons meant a lot. So did the phone call from goalie coach Mike Buckley, who reached out to Kuemper immediately after the trade to offer some suggestions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t any pushback,\u201d Buckley said. \u201cThat was really a relief, that the changes that I thought would help him, he was totally in agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to him for being open-minded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper is shining in his stint in Los Angeles, putting together one of the best seasons in the NHL. With a .919 save percentage and a 2.19 GAA, he\u2019s been a stabilizing force for the team\u2019s defense-first mindset. It\u2019s a far cry from his time as a backup in Minnesota and L.A., and a testament to his hard work and determination.<\/p>\n
* What was Darcy Kuemper’s record with the Kings in his first stint?
\n\t+ He lost just once in regulation in 15 starts and had a better save percentage and goals-against average than Jonathan Quick.
\n* Why was Darcy Kuemper traded from the Kings?
\n\t+ He was traded to Arizona with 22 games left in the 2017-18 season.
\n* How has Darcy Kuemper performed since returning to the Kings?
\n\t+ He has a .919 save percentage that ranks third in the NHL among goalies with at least 30 starts, and a 2.19 GAA that is second in the league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Darcy Kuemper’s Stellar L.A. Comeback Doesn’t Surprise Kings A Familiar Face, a New Opportunity The first time Darcy Kuemper played for the Kings, he played well. He just didn\u2019t play often. As the backup to Jonathan Quick, who became the winningest American-born goalie in NHL history, Kuemper saw less ice time than the Zamboni driver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/25d298c\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2930x1538+0+0\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F6c%2F18%2F4c6fa01940299e09c2b8fbbe3954%2Flightning-kings-hockey-52053.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8242,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8240\/revisions\/8242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}