The first time Darcy Kuemper played for the Kings, he played well. He just didn’t 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 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.
Which is to say he played well enough to start. But he wasn’t going to do that with the Kings.
“Goalie’s a tough position,” Kuemper said. “Only one guy gets to play.”
So rather than let Kuemper, then 27, languish on the end of the bench, Rob Blake, the Kings’ 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.
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’s top goaltender.
“Basically what happened was an opportunity,” Kuemper said. “Blake met with me and I was like ‘I don’t want to leave but I want to play more. I want to be a No. 1 in this league.’ So the trade happened.”
It wasn’t a totally altruistic move on the Kings’ part. Kuemper’s contract would have ended when the season did, so by trading him, Blake assured the team it would get something in return.
Still, it’s the thought that counts, Kuemper said.
“I’m forever grateful for him providing me with that opportunity,” he said. “He definitely didn’t have to.”
Now 35, he’s 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.
Plus he’s 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’s game with Utah, the Kings’ first after the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
“He’s probably been our backbone,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “He’s just been very, very consistent. That’s really what you want in a goaltender: just to be pretty consistent.
“Stop the ones that we think he should stop, make a couple of great saves every once in a while and we’ll be good with that.”
Kuemper, a rangy 6-foot-5, butterfly-style goalie with good puck-handling skills, has done more than that. He’s 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’ director of goaltending, who had a say in the decision to bring Kuemper back.
“The numbers that he had the first time around were very good,” 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.
“He knew our system, the way we like to play. He’s 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’s trying to do to get his game back on track.”
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.
“There wasn’t any pushback,” Buckley said. “That was really a relief, that the changes that I thought would help him, he was totally in agreement.
“Credit to him for being open-minded.”
Neither Kuemper nor Buckley would go into detail about those changes, but both said the goalie has been encouraged to use his instincts and play more freely.
“A big part of it too is just getting back to having fun,” Buckley said. “Taking that pressure off and enjoying what you do. Being present in the moment.”
Being present again in Southern California, a place Kuemper said he never wanted to leave, also has helped.
“You know there’s been a lot of good goalies stuck in a backup role. It’s hard to get that opportunity, to get the chance to be a No, 1 guy,” said Kuemper, who this month welcomed his and Sydney’s second child, a boy named Barrett.
“A lot of time it takes a trade or something. I’m very fortunate that I was able to get that chance.”
He and the Kings are making the most of it.
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