Once the steady backbone of a Stanley Cup run, Darcy Kuemper now finds his role in Los Angeles slipping into uncertainty as trade chatter and a shifting goaltending hierarchy force uncomfortable questions about his NHL future.
Darcy Kuemper’s career has started to feel less like a decline and more like a slow fade from a story he once helped define.
Kuemper is like that teammate who quietly helps you win a championship, then somehow gets written out of the story as if he was never a major part of it.
He didn’t just pass through Colorado—he anchored it at the exact moment it mattered most. Kuemper backstopped the Avalanche to the 2022 Stanley Cup despite dealing with a lingering eye injury throughout the year, providing stability in a role that had long been the franchise’s biggest question mark. And yet, once the celebration ended, so did the commitment. He left in free agency after Colorado pivoted toward Alexandar Georgiev.
In Washington, Kuemper struggled to find rhythm as injuries and inconsistency interrupted any real sense of continuity. In Los Angeles, the flashes returned. At times, he looked like the version that could still steal games—stretching into stretches where he resembled a legitimate Vezina-caliber starter. But the interruptions never fully disappeared, and over time, neither did the inconsistency. Eventually, his role shrank as the Kings leaned into other options.
That arc eventually reached its turning point when he lost the starting job to Anton Forsberg, a shift that underscored just how unforgiving the NHL can be when momentum slips.
The question now becomes what comes next. Does Kuemper remain in Los Angeles in a reduced role, or try to reset his career elsewhere? In theory, a rotational setup could still make sense—similar to what Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood built in Colorado this season. Both netminders were named co-winners of the William M. Jennings Trophy, which is given to "the goaltender(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it ... based on regular-season play."
But that kind of stability is rarely linear in practice. And for Kuemper, the challenge is no longer just performance—it’s opportunity, timing, and how much runway a team is willing to give a goaltender with a defined ceiling and a complicated recent track record.
On the other side of that conversation sits Anton Forsberg, a goaltender whose reputation has been built less on projection and more on persistence. His foundation traces back to his AHL days with the Lake Erie (now Cleveland) Monsters under current Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar.
In 2016, Lake Erie carried a 3–1 series lead over the Grand Rapids Griffins, but Game 5 cracked the structure. Joonas Korpisalo, who had carried much of the workload through the run, was pulled after allowing five goals on 30 shots in a game that quickly slipped away. With the Monsters trailing 5–1, Bednar turned to Anton Forsberg—not as a rescue attempt, but as a stabilizing move meant to halt the collapse. Forsberg allowed one goal on six shots the rest of the way, though the damage had already been done in a 6–1 loss.
Game 6 brought more instability. Korpisalo again faltered, surrendering three goals on just nine shots, forcing another in-game adjustment from Bednar.
When Forsberg re-entered, the tone shifted immediately.
He wasn’t reacting anymore—he was taking over. Forsberg had been one of Lake Erie’s most reliable players all season, finishing with a 23-10-5 record, a 2.40 goals-against average, and a .914 save percentage. Still, the postseason crease initially belonged to Korpisalo. Forsberg didn’t argue the decision. He changed it.
Bednar later summarized what stood out in him without hesitation:
"Fors is a competitive guy; he's an athletic guy, he's a great teammate. He's got a great mental mindset of the game and none of that's changed."
From there, Forsberg took control of the series. He stopped all 23 shots he faced in relief during Game 6, helping stabilize a team that suddenly had life again. Goals from Michael Chaput and Lukas Sedlak forced overtime, where Zach Werenski finished the series 12:32 into the extra frame.
And after that moment, the question of the crease effectively disappeared.
Forsberg didn’t just step into it—he took back what he thought was rightfully is all along.
Now, if that version of Forsberg is the one that shows up consistently, Kuemper may find himself on the outside looking in unless Peter Laviolette opts for a more balanced rotation. But history suggests otherwise. During his time with the New York Rangers, Igor Shesterkin averaged 58 starts per season under Laviolette, accounting for more than 71% of the workload.
So the conversation inevitably circles back to fit and flexibility. For Kuemper, that could mean an expanded role elsewhere—or potentially a new landing spot altogether if the market opens up.
The Kings, meanwhile, continue to evaluate roster structure on multiple fronts, including defensive upgrades and broader trade flexibility, with names like Darnell Nurse circulating in wider league discussions.
And as always, contending teams rarely sit still when goaltending becomes a question rather than a certainty.
