Report: Capitals Could Try To Move Darcy Kuemper In Offseason

As the Washington Capitals enter what's likely to be a busy offseason, they find themselves also asking questions in net. And per reports, Darcy Kuemper could be on his way out.

Per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, Washington is going to evaluate its options and see what it can do with the 34-year-old netminder.

"Is Kuemper back? Do they try to find a new home for him?" I think that's possible," Friedman said. "It's not easy but I think they're going to try."

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Kuemper signed a five-year, $26.25 million contract in July 2022 to be the Capitals' new starter and revamped the crease with neither of their young netminders in Ilya Samsonov or Vitek Vanecek panning out as the starter.

He played in 57 games for Washington in 2022-23, putting up a .909 save percentage, but this season, saw his play take a turn for the worse. After a rough start, Kuemper ended up losing the starting role to Charlie Lindgren. Through 33 games this year, he posted a .890 save percentage and 3.31 goals against average.

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At the same time, Lindgren has shown that he can be a full-time starter and carry a bigger workload, and he has one more season at $1.1 million. All the while, Hunter Shepard and Clay Stevenson are on the rise in Hershey, packing a lot of promise for the organization going forward.

Moving Kuemper wouldn't be easy given his contract and term with three more years left at $5.25 million, along wtih his drop in play, but it would free up some space to work with and give the Capitals more stability in net.