Darcy Kuemper wants to remain with the Los Angeles Kings, but he'll have to beat out Anton Forsberg and prove he can reclaim the starting job he lost last season.
Darcy Kuemper doesn't want to leave Los Angeles.
He wants another chance to prove he can be the goaltender the Kings believed they were getting when they signed him.
According to Kings insider Zach Dooley, Kuemper has made it clear that he wants to remain with the Kings and compete for his starting job. That opportunity is there, but unlike a year ago, the position is no longer his by default.
That's what makes this season so important for Kuemper.
A year ago, the veteran entered training camp as the unquestioned starter after putting together a Vezina Trophy-nominated 2024-25 season. The expectation was that he would pick up where he left off and continue to anchor the Kings' crease.
Instead, an injury in December was followed by the worst stretch of his season, and Anton Forsberg eventually played his way into the starting role.
Now, Kuemper has to take it back.
For the first two months of the 2025-26 season, there was little reason to think Kuemper wouldn't deliver another strong campaign.
From Opening Night through his injury on Dec. 15 in Dallas, Kuemper went 10-6-6 with a .917 save percentage, a 2.19 goals-against average and 10.72 goals saved above average.
Those numbers were right in line with the form he showed during his outstanding 2024-25 campaign.
Then came the injury.
After returning, Kuemper simply wasn't the same.
From that point forward, he went 9-8-9 with a .868 save percentage, a 3.30 goals-against average and minus-15.87 goals saved above average. Those numbers ranked among the worst in the NHL during that stretch.
The Kings gave Kuemper opportunities to get his game back, but eventually, another goaltender made it difficult to keep him in the crease.
That goaltender was Forsberg.
Forsberg arrived in Los Angeles last offseason with a fairly straightforward job: provide the Kings with a reliable veteran option behind Kuemper.
He ended up being much more than that.
Forsberg put together arguably the best season of his NHL career, finishing with a 2.54 goals-against average, a .910 save percentage and 16 wins in 36 appearances.
His play became especially important as Kuemper struggled following his return from injury.
By the end of the regular season, Forsberg had taken over the crease. He started all four games of the Kings' first-round playoff series against Colorado and was arguably Los Angeles' best-performing player. They got swept, but half of those games were one-goal games, including a 2-1 overtime loss in Game 2. If it weren't for Forsberg, you could forget about any of those matchups being close.
That changes the dynamic heading into 2026-27.
Kuemper now has to prove he can take it all back and then some.
The interesting part is that Kuemper doesn't appear interested in finding a new opportunity elsewhere.
As Dooley reported, Kuemper wants to stay with the Kings and believes he can earn his way back into the starting role.
That should make for an intriguing training camp.
The Kings know what Kuemper is capable of when he's playing at his best. He didn't stumble into his Vezina Trophy-nominated 2024-25 season. He finished that year with a .921 save percentage and a 2.02 goals-against average while establishing himself as one of the league's better goaltenders.
That's the version of Kuemper the Kings want to see again.
The problem is that they also have recent evidence of what happens when he isn't playing at that level.
For Kuemper, this isn't about proving that he belongs in the NHL. It isn't even about proving that he can still be a starter.
He's done both.
It's about proving he can once again be the starter the Kings can rely on every night.
There is an obvious reason this competition could have ramifications beyond Opening Night.
Both Kuemper and Forsberg are entering the final year of their contracts.
That gives Los Angeles an entire season to evaluate the two veterans before deciding what comes next, but it also gives both goaltenders plenty to play for.
If Kuemper returns to his 2024-25 form and reclaims the crease, the Kings could have a decision to make about keeping him beyond this season.
If Forsberg continues playing like he did down the stretch last year, the organization could instead view him as the better long-term option.
And if the two split the job, Los Angeles could enter next summer with an even more complicated decision.
For Kuemper, though, none of that needs to be solved right now.
His immediate goal is much simpler.
Get healthy. Get his game back. Win the job.
The first two months of last season showed that Kuemper can still perform at a high level. The months that followed created legitimate questions about whether he could maintain it.
Now he gets a chance to answer them.
The Kings aren't going to hand him the crease because of what he accomplished in 2024-25. But they also aren't going to erase that season because of what happened after his injury.
He'll have the opportunity to compete with Forsberg and prove that last season was a detour rather than the beginning of a decline.
And if you're Kuemper, there's no better revenge than exemplifying that your Stanley Cup-winning skills haven't eroded.
