Darcy Kuemper

Last Season

Fifty games, a .891 save percentage and a 2.78 goals-against average with three shutouts. That save percentage is well below his career .913, and a 19-14-15 record with that many ties-turned-overtime says a lot about the kind of games this team plays.

The Physical Game

Six-five, and like most goaltenders that size he plays a controlled, positional game and lets shots hit him. He is square early, quiet in the crease, and does not chase pucks with his hands. At his best in Colorado he made hard nights look procedural.

The lateral movement is his limitation and always has been. He is not a quick side-to-side goaltender, so plays that move the puck across the royal road get him moving late, and he is beaten more often on the second look than the first.

Rebound control was the specific problem last season. Pucks came off him into the slot rather than to the corners, and on a team that already surrenders the middle of the ice more than it should, that compounds.

The Mental Game

Even-tempered and durable in the psychological sense — he does not spiral after a soft goal, and he has been through enough seasons to treat a bad month as a bad month. He has also never been an especially demonstrative presence, which cuts both ways on a team that could use somebody stealing games.

The Intangibles

He won a Cup as a starter, which is not nothing and is worth remembering when a save percentage dips for a year. He is thirty-six, and goaltenders of this type — big, positional, unspectacular — usually hold their level until they suddenly do not.

The club has an able backup and a lot of money committed to the position. This is the season that determines whether last year was a blip or the start of the decline.