Darcy Kuemper Opens Up About Struggles With Capitals, Trade Speculation & What Future Holds For Him In D.C.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — Over the course of his career, Washington Capitals goaltender Darcy Kuemper has been no stranger to the starter's net. But for most of 2023-24, he found himself in unfamiliar territory: watching from the bench.
Amid struggles and inconsistency in his own game and the rise of goalie partner Charlie Lindgren, Kuemper spent most of the time backing up.
Even down the stretch at a critical juncture for his Capitals, when he felt confident in his game and sure he could steal a game or two, he didn't get the chance, with Spencer Carbery and his staff leaning on Lindgren.
"I mean, it was challenging, I guess, at times for myself," Kuemper admitted. "Just not having some of the results that I'm used to, and then not playing as much as I'm used to, either."
Kuemper appeared in just 33 games for the Capitals, the lowest total in a full 82-game campaign since his 2017-18 season split between the Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes.
His numbers were far from impressive, as he managed a career-worst .890 save percentage and 3.31 GAA. Meanwhile, among goalies with at least 33 games played this season, he was tied for the ninth-worst goals above expected in the league (-4.8).
So, what went wrong for Kuemper? The main issue for him, he believes, was consistency.
"Yeah, I think maybe some things that made it harder to be as consistent as I've been in the past, you know, it was kind of more of a good result, bad result than I'm used to," Kuemper said. "And so we're just kind of looking at things from previous years and how I played certain situations and stances, movements, things like that and just try to get back to that."
So, as time went on and more and more games passed without playing time, Kuemper got to work with goaltending coach Scott Murray to reignite that spark that made him a Stanley Cup champion just two years ago.
"We were just trying to get back to things that have made me very successful in the past just with movements and things like that. I was actually feeling really, really good about my game and the things that we were working on," Kuemper said. "Just never got a chance to go out there and show it."
Given his struggles, the rumor mill has started churning with regard to his future, as Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman speculated less than 24 hours after the Capitals' season came to an end that Washington could look to move Kuemper this summer with Lindgren stealing the No. 1 rule.
For the 34-year-old netminder, he's tuning out the outside noise.
"Don't pay attention till it happens. There's always going to be rumors floating around, so you just kind of wait to see if anything happens, I guess," Kuemper said. "You can't really get caught up in worrying about things that are speculative."
At the end of the day, the expectation for general manager Brian MacLellan is that Kuemper can come back and rebound, and even Lindgren stood by his partner.
"I mean, and I think I told him many times this year, he's an unbelievable goalie and he's had such a great career. And so I think that you can see that maybe when he wasn't playing, it was tough. But he was always such an amazing teammate to me. And that's something that I know I'll never, never forget. He's a really classy guy and he's an unbelievable goalie, unbelievable teammate," Lindgren said.
"He's gonna bounce back. I remember saying, you can look at his numbers and all that, and you know, people make a bigger deal with numbers than they really are. Numbers don't tell the whole story with Darcy," he added. "He's got to hold his head up high and you know, I' know he'll get to work this summer. I know no one on this team is worried about Darcy Kuemper. Just a really good teammate, really good goalie."
And that's exactly what Kuemper plans to do.
"Absolutely (I want to win my job back)," Kuemper said.
