The NHL announced that LA Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper is one of three finalists for the 2024-25 Vezina Trophy. The Vezina is given “to the goaltender adjudged to be the best at his position,” according to the NHL, and is voted on by the League's general managers. The Los Angeles netminder joins Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy as the trio of candidates for the award.Kuemper, 34, finished the regular season with a 31-11-7 record, a career-low 2.02 goals against average (GAA), .922% save percentage (SV %) and five shutouts in 50 games played. The Kings’ netminder’s GAA and SV% both ranked second, respectively, among all goaltenders with a minimum of 40 games played this season. Per NHL EDGE, the 6-5, 215-pound netminder maintained a .863 SV% in high-danger situations through the regular season, the highest such save-percentage of any goaltender in the League.
Earlier this month, Kuemper won the Bill Libby Memorial Award as the Kings’ Most Valuable Player and Best Defensive Player honors, both of which were selected by the media. The veteran posted the fourth-best SV% of his career and matched his personal-best in shutouts for a fourth time, being credited with five, while also playing the majority of a separate team-shutout on April 14 in Edmonton.
The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan native was named the NHL’s “First Star of the Week” for the week ending March 16 after earning his 199th and 200th career victories. Kuemper accomplished the feat by posting consecutive shutouts at Crypto.com Arena: first on March 13 against his former team, the Washington Capitals, before an encore on March 15 against the Nashville Predators. Those performances marked the first time a Kings goaltender recorded back-to-back blank-sheets since Kuemper himself did so on Jan. 30 and Feb. 3, 2018, and helped the 34-year-old set a new franchise mark for longest home point streak by posting a 15-game run (14-0-1) from Feb. 5 through March 25.
During a separate month-long stretch from March 5 through April 10, Kuemper joined 2006 Vezina Trophy winner Miikka Kiprusoff (16 GS in 2003-04) as just the second goaltender in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68) to have 15 or more consecutive starts of allowing two or fewer goals. Kuemper’s streak helped the Kings finish the 2024-25 campaign with one of their best defensive resumes in franchise history, holding their opponents to a combined 203 goals against (GA) in the regular season. This marked the second fewest total goals allowed this year behind only the Winnipeg Jets (190 GA) and the ninth fewest through 82 games in Kings history.
Originally selected in the sixth round (161st overall) of the 2009 NHL Draft by the Wild, the netminder is a veteran of 439 NHL regular-season contests. Kuemper returned to Los Angeles for his second stint with the Kings after being acquired on June 19, 2024. Over parts of 14 seasons with the Kings, Minnesota Wild, Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, and Washington Capitals, Kuemper has accumulated a 209-146-53 regular season record with a 2.54 lifetime GAA and .915 SV%. He has also played in 38 career playoff games, earning 19 wins with a 2.84 GAA and .904 SV% in a postseason career that includes a Stanley Cup Championship with Colorado in 2022. Internationally, he has represented his native Canada in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship in 2018 and 2021. In 15 total games played over those two tournaments, Kuemper maintained a 2.30 GAA and a .898 SV% with one shutout and captured a gold medal in 2021 in Latvia.
About the Vezina Trophy
The Vezina Trophy was dedicated in memory of Georges Vezina, the two-time Stanley Cup champion goaltender who played 327 consecutive regular season games and 39 playoff games before collapsing during a game on Nov. 28, 1925, and passing away a few months later. The award was first presented to the NHL by former owners of the Montreal Canadiens, Leo Dandurand, Louis Letourneau and Joseph Cattarinich, and was first awarded to Vezina’s successor, Canadiens’ goaltender George Hainsworth, in 1927. The criteria for the Trophy have varied over the years. From 1946-47 through the 1980-81 season, the goaltender(s) of the team allowing the fewest number of goals during the regular season was awarded the Trophy. In 1981, the current standard was adopted, awarding the Vezina to the most outstanding goaltender as determined by the general managers of the NHL teams.
