Darcy Kuemper apparently has NEW TEAM already as soon as Free Agency starts

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Ryan
July 12, 2022 (4:34 PM)

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The Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche were an absolute force this year which led to the cup victory, and as usual when a team wins, the unfortunate offseason of losing key players from the winning team begins shortly after.

The Avalanche resigned Val Nichushkin recently to a massive 8 year deal, but are most likely losing star center Nazem Kadri who played a huge role for the Avalanche this year both in the regular season and playoffs.

Another person that will be leaving the organization is starting goalie Darcy Kuemper. The Colorado Avalanche made a trade with the New York Rangers recently to bring in Alexander Georgiev, which meant the end of Kuempers time in Colorado.

Kuemper will be hitting free agency tomorrow and is apparently looking for a deal in the $5.5-6 million range for 6 years.

Teams responding to Kuemper's availability. The belief is he's hoping to fetch a free agent contract similar to Grubauer's 6 year deal with Seattle. $5.9 mil aav.� Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 7, 2022

Keumper had good season last year, going 32-12-4 with a .921 save percentage, but didn't play all that well in the playoffs, even though he won a cup. He only had a .902 SV% in the playoffs this season.

Even though he finished a little poorly, he is still the top goalie available in free agency, and a team that is highly in on Kuemper are the Washington Capitals.

The Capitals biggest weakness last season was goaltending. They had a young tandem of Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek who were good enough to get them into the playoffs, but both failed to help the Capitals in the playoffs. Vanecek was traded last week to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for some draft picks, and it was announced yesterday that Samsonov would not receive a qualifying offer, so he will go to free agency as well.

At the moment the Capitals do not have a goalie under NHL contract and will apparently be the team ''ALL IN'' on Kuemper tomorrow.

According to Elliotte Friedman, the Washington Capitals are the front-runners to sign this cup winning goaltender.

Which blows the mind of this writer as two years ago the Washington Capitals let Braden Holtby leave in free agency in hopes to get younger in net, and well, now they're bringing in a goalie the same age who is arguably worse.