Adrian Dater
You’ll have to pardon Darcy Kuemper if “home” is some kind of far-flung fantasy of a word when it comes to his professional life. He has played for three NHL teams in his career, which started in Minnesota in 2012-13, which…actually isn’t too many for a career that is nearly 10 years old by now.
In his nine NHL seasons, Kuemper played parts of five seasons in Minnesota and parts of four others in Arizona. Sandwiched in the middle was a 19-game stint with the Los Angeles Kings in 2018 – which resulted in a 10-1-2 record and .932 saves percentage. That’s essentially where Kuemper’s career turned around. Yeah, there were some good times in Minnesota (including a Game 7 of the 2014 playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche, which resulted in a Wild win). But when Kuemper got to L.A., he had been conditioned to believe that maybe he would never be anything more than backup material.
Today, he is the 31-year-old man who has been handed the keys to the starting job with the Avs, although essentially on a one-year lease to prove he can occupy the space beyond that.
Kuemper is in something of the Twilight Zone, therefore. He has proven a lot about himself already in the NHL. You don’t have people paying you $4.5 million for a year of your services if you haven’t. Yet, there is another level to attain. Kuemper, acquired by the Avs in an expensive trade with Arizona in July, knows he is being presented with a nice opportunity in Denver.
Just like he was in L.A., when maybe he didn’t even realize it at the time.
“I had been in Minnesota a few years, and people were great to me there. But suddenly, I was kind of looking at things differently when I got to the Kings,” Kuemper told Colorado Hockey Now Thursday night. “I think I learned to look at things a new way. I was able to realize the things I did well to that point, but maybe to expand on them.”
Kuemper, 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, credits one person more than any other for that:
“Bill Ranford,” Kuemper said. “He was the goalie coach there, and he really helped me look at things just a little differently, that helped me a lot.”
Kuemper also credits Coyotes goalie coach Corey Schwab for helping him a lot, too. In his first full season with Arizona, Kuemper compiled a 27-20-8 record with a .925 saves percentage. The next season, his saves percentage was .928.
Darcy Kuemper is coming off an injury-riddled 2020-21 season in which his saves percentage was .907, but since that Coyotes campaign ended he has won a World Championship gold medal for Canada, not to mention being acquired by a team that, again, is considered one of the favorites, or whatever, for the next Stanley Cup.
“I’m just super-excited to join the organization,” he said. “I know it’s a great chance for me, and the other guys, to play for a Cup. I like a challenge, and this is a good one. I’m ready to be an Av.”
On Thursday, Kuemper said he was just starting to pack everything up from Arizona for the move to Denver. He said he should be in town in a couple of weeks, that he’s got a place already purchased, and that his dog, Rogue, is getting psyched up, too.
“Rogue is my German shepherd. He only has one eye, from a condition when he was young, but you’d never know it,” Darcy Kuemper said. “He knows something is up, but he’s excited I think. We both are.”