Darcy Kuemper To Move On; Avalanche Acquire Rangers goalie Georgiev

Things change quick in this business, right? Just now, the Colorado Avalanche acquired New York Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev for a third- and fifth-round pick in this weekend’s NHL draft, and a fifth-rounder in 2023. Colorado Hockey Now can also firmly report: Darcy Kuemper’s time with the Avalanche is over.

There just wasn’t enough cap space for a deal to work out with Kuemper, my sources said. Kuemper’s agent and Joe Sakic had talked as recently as Wednesday, but it became clear then that a new contract wasn’t going to work out.

So, Sakic has quickly pivoted to getting Georgiev, a 26-year-old who posted a 15-10-2 record and .898 save percentage this past season and a 2.92 goals-against. He had a very strong finish to the season, however, going 8-1-0 in his last nine starts with two shutouts. With the emergence of Igor Shesterkin, Georgiev was slated to be a backup moving forward.

His career record, all with the Rangers, is 58-49-11, with a .909 save percentage. He has no contract for the coming season, but is a restricted free agent. He can become UFA next year. His last salary carried a $2.4 million cap hit.

Kuemper? Hey, the Avalanche got what they wanted out of him – a Stanley Cup. But with so many other UFAs on the Avalanche roster still, he had to be sacrificed.

I’ll weigh in more on this later…