While the LA Kings season has come to an end, there are a number of players who have a chance to still win something for their performance from the regular season. One of those players is goalie Darcy Kuemper, who was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy.
The other two goalies that were named finalists were Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets, who is the consensus runaway favorite to win the award. However, Kuemper built a resume that has absolutely warranted some discussion to be named the winner.
In his first season with the LA Kings, he would go 31-11-7 with five shutouts. In those 50 starts, he finished with a save percentage of .921 and a goals against average of 2.02, which ranked second and third in the NHL, respectively, among all goalies.
When was the last time that the LA Kings had a goalie win the Vezina Trophy?
The one goalie that immediately comes to mind that might have warranted him being in the discussion for the Vezina Trophy would be Jonathan Quick. However, surprisingly he would never win the award, and the Los Angeles Kings are still looking for the first player to bring the trophy to Los Angeles.
There have been three instances prior to this season that the Kings have had a player named as a finalist, with Jonathan Quick doing it twice in the 2015-16 and 2011-12 seasons. The other time was all the way back in the 1974-75 season when Rogie Vachon and Gary Edwards were named finalists together.
If Kuemper doesn't win the award this season, the good news for the Los Angeles Kings is that they have a number of promising prospects that might one day win the award from Erik Portillo to Carter George to Hampton Slukynsky.