Starting individual season evaluations in net with goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
Off all the potential question marks entering the season, Kuemper was perhaps the biggest answer given. Kuemper had a huge rebound season in goal, posting one of the finest seasons of his NHL career after he returned to the Kings organization over the summer via trade from Washington. A terrific season, start to finish, for number 35.
Darcy Kuemper
NHL Statline – 50 games played, 2974 minutes played, 31-11-7 record, 2.00 goals against average, .922 save percentage, .914 even-strength save percentage, 5 shutouts
NHL Playoff Statline – 6 games played, 369 minutes played, 2-4 record, 3.74 goals-against average, .889 save percentage, .897 even-strength save percentage, 0 shutouts
Darcy Kuemper’s performance represented perhaps the largest question mark the Kings faced entering the 2024-25 season. Coming off one of the worst seasons of his career, the hope on all fronts was that a change of scenery would bring Kuemper back to form. What happened, ultimately, was greater than I think anyone involved could have imagined. Kuemper not only returned to form but exceeded it, playing some of the best hockey of his career in the process.
“I’ll be honest with you, I thought he would give us solid goaltending, but he’s had an exceptional season so far,” Hiller said. “I don’t know if anybody could have saw this coming, he’s been great.”
Kuemper exceeded just about every expectation in place, as he delivered one of the strongest goaltending seasons in Kings history by a man who isn’t named Jonathan Quick.
Trending Up – Darcy Kuemper was nominated for the Vezina Trophy at the end of the season, the first time in his career he’s been selected as a finalist. Kuemper received votes in 2019 and 2020, finishing fifth and seventh respectively, but this season was the first time he finished in the league’s Top-3 in the voting. He finished with a .922 save percentage, which ranked third behind fellow finalists Andrei Vasilevskiy and Connor Hellebuyck. His 2.02 GAA was second only to Hellebuyck and Kuemper also ranked in the Top-3 in high-danger save percentage. A terrific statistical season, unquestionably.
Kuemper provided the Kings with stability on the penalty kill as well. Coming off a 2023-24 season in which the Kings ranked highly in the NHL, but saw cracks begin to surface down the stretch as well as during the playoffs, the team reset its approach over the summer, building a more aggressive style while down a man. What that set up were fewer chances overall but high-quality chances against when things broke down. Among goaltenders with at least 200 minutes of shorthanded time, Kuemper led the NHL in goals-against average, while ranking third in goals saved above average. Kuemper ranked second in the league in high-danger saves and high-danger save percentage on the penalty kill as well, showcasing his ability in those situations to bail out his team on the occasions the PK was beaten.
Lastly, while this is not something Kuemper said he was focused on, his performance validated a trade made last summer, one which came out of necessity. There was nothing Kuemper could do to make up for the assets lost in the original Pierre-Luc Dubois deal with Winnipeg and that certainly isn’t his responsibility to do so. For him, we can only assess the second trade. In terms of the 1-for-1 swap – Dubois for Kuemper – there were certainly some question marks coming in. I’m not sure that Kuemper could have answered them any better. The Kings needed a starting goaltender and ultimately acquired one in a trade that was as much about contracts as players. To perform as well as he did helped to alleviate some of the pain points surrounding the original trade. While less important for Kuemper, it was important for the Kings and he delivered.
Trending Down – There’s not all that much to complain about when it comes to Kuemper’s season, is there?
I think the biggest thing has to be durability. Kuemper missed time twice with a lower-body injury. Kuemper missed 12 days of action in October and around a month in November/December. The injury, as I understand it, was the same thing in both instances, though nothing that was re-aggravated later in the season. Missing time limited Kuemper’s overall body of work to 50 games, which is a pretty good number for him. It just turned out to be backloaded. A clean bill of health is important for him heading into next season, as the Kings will likely look to space out his workload a bit more evenly than it was this season.
Lastly, while I don’t think that Kuemper’s play was bad in the playoffs, I’m including it here because his numbers took a pretty steep turn downward in the series against the Oilers. On a per/60 basis, no goaltender in the playoffs faced more high-danger chances than Kuemper and none had a higher expected goals against column than Kuemper did. So the workload was very high. But with it came the most rebounds allowed and a high-danger save percentage of .776, well below his mark in the regular season. I thought Kuemper was heroic in Games 4 and 5 and gave the team a great chance to win in those games. His numbers in Game 6 really sunk his totals across the board and the Kings wound up needing more in an elimination game. It really shouldn’t have gotten to that point anyways and Kuemper was good along the way, so it’s hard to dig too deep there, but the numbers against the Oilers didn’t match the full 82-game slate.
2025-26 Status – Kuemper has two seasons remaining on his current contract, carrying a salary-cap hit of $5,250,000 for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons. Kuemper will be back and he will be back as the team’s starting goaltender. Coming off a terrific season, the Kings will be counting on Kuemper delivering once again. Entering his age-35 season, Kuemper probably isn’t going to play 60 games. He played 50 this season, though that was limited in large part due to injury. Expecting him to be the clear starter next season, though with a managed workload as an older goaltender. Maintaining at least some of that level of performance will be very important.
