In an alternate universe, the Colorado Avalanche would have Vezina Trophy nominee Darcy Kuemper manning the crease.
In this reality, however, Kuemper is tending the goal in Los Angeles. That reality has led plenty of fans to speculate about the what-ifs regarding a crucial decision the Avalanche made in the 2022 offseason following their magical Stanley Cup run.
That offseason, the Avalanche bought into the rhetoric that the club could win without a true, number-one netminder. Moreover, cap issues forced the Avalanche to make tough choices. One such choice was to let Nazem Kadri depart via free agency, as well.
So, the Avalanche let Kuemper go. He signed a five-year deal with the Washington Capitals for $26.25 million.
At the time, many observers believed that the Capitals had overpaid for Kuemper. After he struggled in DC, the Caps sent him to LA. There, Kuemper flourished into a Vezina-caliber goalie.
Meanwhile, the Avalanche had a goalie carousel starting in 2022-23. Five different goalies suited up for the Avs, with Alexandar Georgiev getting the lion’s share of starts. We won’t go into how that turned out for Colorado.
It’s safe to say that the team finally remedied the situation by landing MacKenzie Blackwood this past season.
But would it have been necessary to go through all of that drama? How different would things have been if the Avalanche had re-signed Kuemper?
It’s an intriguing thought.
In that parallel universe, where the Avalanche re-signed Kuemper, the Avs would have had a real shot at repeating.
But they didn’t, and that repeat never happened.
Colorado Avalanche were right to move on from Darcy Kuemper
Hindsight is 20/20 vision, they say.
Looking back at the circumstances surrounding Kuemper’s departure, the Avalanche were right to move on from him. They had a solid goalie in Alexandar Georgiev waiting in the wings. The club needed to prioritize cap space, and the post-COVID NHL put a lock on the cap ceiling.
Had COVID never happened, the flat-cap era would have never existed. The Avalanche would have had the cap space to sign Kuemper and possibly keep Kadri. Heaven knows Kadri wanted to stay in Colorado.
But the fact is that the Avalanche had tough choices to make. They made the right call at the time based on imperfect information and a great deal of uncertainty. If you’ve ever dealt in business or the military, you can appreciate how difficult it is to make crucial decisions under such duress.
More often than not, such decisions can quickly go south. That’s what happened to the Avalanche.
In the Avs’ defense, it took Kuemper several seasons to become a Vezina nominee. His early struggles in DC allowed folks to point the finger and proclaim the Avalanche right in letting him walk.
Perhaps the LA Kings’ defensive core deserves the credit for Kuemper’s terrific season this past year.
Lastly, the organization can’t be blamed for Georgiev’s downfall. His awful run with the San Jose Sharks proved the Avalanche were right. Maybe there’s another parallel universe in which, three years from now, we’ll be writing about the mistake the Avalanche made in letting Georgiev go.