Kuemper represents Caps at NHL Player Media Tour in Las Vegas originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Darcy Kuemper has not played a game for the Capitals yet, but he was tasked with representing the team at the NHL Player Media Tour in Las Vegas on Thursday.
These events give national media members access to a number of big-name players as players and media alike prepare for the upcoming season.
Kuemper enters the season as the starting goalie for the Caps. After winning the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche, he signed a five-year, $26.25 million contract with Washington in the offseason. Because of that, there is plenty of interest around the hockey world in Kuemper heading into the 2022-23 season making him an ideal candidate for the tour.
Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren were brought in by the Caps in the offseason to replace Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek and shore up the team’s goaltending.
Most starting goalies who win a Cup don’t switch teams the following season, but Kuemper was on an expiring contract and the Avalanche could not afford to re-sign him, paving the way for him to enter free agency. Kuemper’s cap hit of $5.25 million is just a smidge under the combined $5.4 million cap hit of Alexandar Georgiev and Pavel Francouz, the goalie tandem Colorado will use this season.
Still, after winning a Cup together, there are clearly no hard feelings between Kuemper and his former team.