The first time Darcy Kuemper played for the KissHe played well. He just didn't play often.
As the backup of Jonathan QuickWho has become the most winning goalkeeper of the most winning American origin in the NHL history, Kuemper has seen less ice time than the half-season Zamboni pilot he spent at the but he only lost one in 15 departures and had a better percentage of backup and an average of goals-butt.
That is to say, he played well enough to start. But he was not going to do that with the kings.
“The goalkeeper is a difficult position,” said Kuemper. “A single guy can play.”
Thus, rather than leaving Kuemper, then 27 years old, languish at the end of the bench, Rob BlakeThe Kings first-year managing director, exchanged it in Arizona with 22 games to do in the 2017-18 season. It was the movement that redefined a career that completed the loop, with Kuemper returning to the Kings last summer to assemble one of the best seasons in the NHL.
A safeguarding in some parts of six seasons in Minnesota and Los Angeles, Kuemper became goalkeeper n ° 1 of the coyotes, negotiating the one year and $ 650,000 contract he had with the Kings for an extension of $ 3.7 million over two years, granted to the NHL Top Butternder.
“Basically, what happened is an opportunity,” said Kuemper. “Blake met me and I said to myself” I don't want to leave but I want to play more. I want to be n ° 1 in this league. Trade has therefore occurred.
It was not a totally altruistic decision of the part of the kings. The Kuemper contract would have ended when the season did it, so by exchanging it, Blake assured the team that this would get something in return.
However, it is the thought that counts, said Kuemper.
“I am eternally grateful for him to offer me this opportunity,” he said. “He certainly didn't have to do it.”
Kings goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper shines in his visit to Los Angeles.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
“He knew our system, the way we like to play. He knows the organization. It has made a slightly more transparent transition.”
– Bill Ranford, coach of Kings goalkeepers, on Darcy Kuemper
Now 35 years old, he reimburses this gratitude. After finding the kings in a trade Mainly recalled for getting rid of the team of the sub-performant center and too paid Pierre-Luc DuboisKuemper has a percentage of stops of .919 which ranks third in the NHL among the guards with at least 30 departures while his GAA of 2.19 is second.
In addition, it improved because the season has been carried. Since his return from an injury to the lower body on December 7, Kuemper had gone 12-4-3 before the match on Saturday with Utah, the Kings first after the two-week break for the 4 nations confronted.
“It was probably our backbone”, ” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “He was very, very consistent. This is really what you want with a goalkeeper: just to be quite consistent.
“Stop those we think he should stop, make some nice backups from time to time and we will be good with that.”
KUEMPER, a 6 -feet 5 -inch butterfly -style goalkeeper goalkeeper, with good cuff skills in the washer, has done more than that. He transformed a position which was a question mark, if not a responsibility, at the end of last season into a force for a team with a state of defense. None of this surprises Bill Ranford, the Kings goalkeeper director, who had a say in the decision to bring Kuemper back.
“The figures he had the first time were very good,” said Ranford about Kuemper, which was an Arizona star and won a Stanley Cup in Colorado before suffering from two washington injury seasons, where he lost more matches he has won and recorded the lowest safeguard percentage and the highest GAA of 13 years.
“He knew our system, the way we like to play. He knows the organization.
Kuemper, who learned the job when his wife, Sydney, struck the bathroom door with the news while he was diverting, the kings had the confidence necessary to bring him back after two bad seasons meant a lot. The phone call from goalkeeper Mike Buckley, who contacted Kuemper immediately after trade to offer some suggestions.
“There was no perspective,” said Buckley. “It was really a relief, that the changes I thought would help, he totally agreed.
“The merit of being open -minded.”
Kings goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper returns to the net in a match against the Hurricanes of Caroline on February 1.
(Karl B Deblaker / Associated Press)
Neither Kuemper nor Buckley would be in the details of these changes, but the two said that the goalkeeper had been encouraged to use his instinct and play more freely.
“Much of this is also to start having fun again,” said Buckley. “Consider this pressure and take advantage of what you do. Be present in the moment. “
Being again present in southern California, a place where Kuemper said he had never wanted to leave, also helped.
“You know that there have been many good guards stuck in a safeguard role. It is difficult to get this opportunity, to have the chance to be a guy no, 1,” said Kuemper, who welcomed his second child from Sydney this month, a boy named Barrett.
“Lots of time, you need a job or something. I'm very lucky to have been able to have this chance. ”
He and the kings take advantage of it.
