On June 19 of last year, Darcy Kuemper’s shower was interrupted by his wife bringing him the news that he’d been traded from the Washington Capitals to the LA Kings.
He could have had no way of knowing exactly what would lie ahead for himself, his family and the LA Kings organization.
But he did feel in his heart of hearts that he was going to the right place.
Monday morning those feelings came into sharper focus when, for the first time in his career, Kuemper was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the top netminder in the National Hockey League. He is just the fourth goaltender since 1981-82 to be named a finalist for the first time at age 34 or older. Kuemper will turn 35 next week.
“It’s pretty cool. Obviously, a lot of thanks to my teammates and to Mike Buckley, the goalie coach, for how much they helped me throughout the year. Obviously, I wouldn’t have been named without those guys,” Kuemper said Monday morning in Edmonton before he and the Kings flew back to California for a critical fifth game in their opening round series against the Oilers Tuesday night.
Given that Kuemper is embroiled in a wildly competitive playoff series, it’s not exactly the proper time to reflect on the season and the journey that has brought him here.
After all, that journey is very much in the here and now.
“I mean I wasn’t really thinking about individual things like that, but I was excited and thought it was going to be a great season,” Kuemper said of his initial thoughts following the trade. “On the horizon, I was very optimistic of how things would go and I knew I was going to a great team and I was really thankful for that. Yeah, it was a really fun regular season, and now we’re in the mix of it right now in the playoffs. So, yeah, it’s been a lot of fun, but not looking back on it too much right now.”
Maybe the moral of the story in the wake of the Vezina accolades is that sometimes you can go home again.
One of the reasons that Kuemper was so excited about the trade out of Washington was that he had spent a brief period with the Kings earlier in his career during the 2017-18 season. His work with then goaltending coach Bill Ranford, now head of the organization’s goaltending department, helped reinvigorate Kuemper’s career. After being traded to Arizona at the 2018 trade deadline Kuemper finished fifth in Vezina Trophy balloting (the NHL’s GMs vote on the award) while enjoying a renaissance in Arizona the next season, 2018-19. Three years later he won the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022 before signing with Washington before last season.
Ranford’s successor, Kings goaltending coach Mike Buckley, is in his second season with the Kings. He didn’t know Kuemper personally when Kuemper was acquired but he studied up on the Kings new starting netminder so he would be ready with a plan when Kuemper arrived.
“I just did a lot of homework on him throughout the summer, I tried to get a head start on things. To his credit he was open-minded, he was all for just taking new steps,” Buckley said. “I could tell right away he understands his game. I think he maybe felt like he got away from his game and tried to make changes that just weren’t natural for him and that’s all it was, was just bringing him back to his natural state.”
After a couple of hiccups early in the season due to injury, Kuemper has been one of top netminders in the league statistically and has endeared himself to his teammates by his staunch play and ability to keep them in games that sometimes they had no business being in.
He finished with a .922 save percentage third behind Andrei Vasilevskiy and Connor Hellebuyck, the other two finalists announced Monday. His 2.02 GAA was a hair behind Hellebuyck’s league-best 2.00 GAA and Kuemper led the league in high danger scoring chance save percentage.
“I definitely think he’s gotten more comfortable with our team structure as well, I think that’s a big part of it too, is getting comfortable with the team structure, getting comfortable with adjustments he’s had to make with his own game,” Buckley said. “I think one of the most important things is getting back to enjoying playing the game.”
KING KUEMPER 👑
Darcy Kuemper has been named a 2024-25 Vezina Finalist!
📲 https://t.co/3vXWIFD9Of#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/WRfx4YxhBn
— x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 28, 2025
Years ago, I spoke to Kuemper about his career renaissance after he’d moved on to Arizona and he said the exact same thing about his first, albeit brief, time with the Kings – that it allowed him to enjoy the game again. It doesn’t always happen and especially not for goaltenders.
“It’s really important. You’ve got to love what you do and we have a very difficult job trying to keep pucks out of the net in the NHL,” Buckley said. “In order to do that on a day-to-day basis you don’t look at it as a grind. You look at it as a challenge at times, but a fun challenge, and something that you know is making you stronger as a man and as a teammate and taking that attitude goes a long, long way.”
Buckley is proud of Kuemper’s recognition and also proud that the team around him helped him perform at a level that created the Vezina recognition.
“I think it’s great for the team, I think it’s great for Darcy. Especially in today’s league it goes hand in hand, you’re not going to have great goaltending without great defense and vice versa,” Buckley added. “It’s just what it is. The league is so skilled and so good that you have to defend and I think it speaks volumes to the team and to Darcy’s hard work, and he’s been there when we’ve needed him and the team’s been there a lot for him as well so it works both ways very happy for everybody.”
In speaking with two former netminders and national NHL analysts Kevin Weekes and Brian Boucher prior to the season, they gave their thoughts on Kuemper’s fit with the Kings.
Weekes thought LA would be a good place for a Kuemper career reboot and Boucher had gone through a similar experience in his career returning to a former team, the Philadelphia Flyers, and finding great success there and thought the same was possible for Kuemper.
Now, with Kuemper joining defending Vezina Trophy winner Hellebuyck and former Vezina Trophy winner Vasilevskiy on the Vezina ballot, both analysts have high praise for the work Kuemper has put in.
Weekes – Big year for Darcy. He’s a big, patient goalie. He’s not necessarily a dynamic, Jonathan Quick-type goalie, he plays a different style. All in all, a huge year for a very good guy, big bounce back year for him.
Boucher – I just think it’s a comfortable situation. I think they value him and make him feel valued and I think that goes a long way. I see a guy, he looks bigger in the net right now, he looks in command. He’s aggressive when he can be and he’s back when he has to be or when there’s other options. I don’t know that I saw that in Washington.
It also doesn’t surprise Boucher that Kuemper and Buckley have formed a strong dynamic.
“Goalies tend to share things with their goalie coaches that they don’t share with other people,” Boucher said. “That comfort can sometimes mean a goalie is able to give an extra two, three, four, five percent. I know I felt that way in certain cases with certain goalie coaches.”
In some ways the announcement of the Vezina ballot comes at a perfect time, the morning after a gut-wrenching 4-3 overtime loss to the Oilers that evened the Kings’ first-round series at two games apiece.
Although Kuemper’s statistics aren’t as gaudy as his regular season numbers, he was outstanding in Game 4 and was the biggest reason that the Kings made it deep into the first overtime period in Game 4 before Leon Draisaitl scored on a power play to end the contest, with Kuemper largely blameless on the play.
Whether he’s been the best goaltender in this series is of little importance to Kuemper. Just like Vezina ballot must also be kept in perspective given the circumstances.
“Yeah, I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it in that sense,” Kuemper said. “I think from my standpoint, I just want to be better and better each game and build as the series goes along, just try to be tough to beat every night and make them earn their goals and do my job to give us a chance to win.”
As he’s done for this club all season long.
Photo by Chris Tanouye/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images
Rules for Blog Commenting
Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.
Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.