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Arizona Coyotes: Darcy Kuemper’s setback does not look good

By Jim Lynch

GLENDALE, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 19: Goalie Darcy Kuemper #35 of the Arizona Coyotes is assisted off the ice by teammate Jakob Chychrun #6 and Coyotes head athletic trainer Dave Zenobi after suffering an injury during the third period of the NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild at Gila River Arena on December 19, 2019 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/NHLI via Getty Images)
GLENDALE, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 19: Goalie Darcy Kuemper #35 of the Arizona Coyotes is assisted off the ice by teammate Jakob Chychrun #6 and Coyotes head athletic trainer Dave Zenobi after suffering an injury during the third period of the NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild at Gila River Arena on December 19, 2019 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Arizona Coyotes have been without their star goalie Darcy Kuemper for sometime now. It looks like we won’t be seeing Kuemper for a while following yesterdays set back.

It looked like Darcy Kuemper would finally get the opportunity to be back in net tonight for the Arizona Coyotes when head coach Rick Tocchet said Kuemper would be a game-time decision yesterday. That ended up not being the case after the morning skate.

The Coyotes reported that goalie Darcy Kuemper suffered a setback during the morning skate today. I wonder if Kuemper suffered a setback due to his actions on the ice, or if he just realized that he was not ready to go following the morning skate.

I do not seeing this team putting Kuemper on the ice unless he was ready. Kuemper has been out with a lower body injury for a while now, and the interesting thing about it is the team has refused to make it more concerning than a day to day injury.

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Kuemper has been out since December, and yet every week the team speaks of him being almost ready for a game in the blue paint. I would rather have Kuemper come back healthy than suffer through a bad injury.

Goalie Darcy Kuemper has been amazing all year for the Coyotes, and while I do not believe the team should have fallen apart without him, the team does need him.

The playoffs are on the line, and we need our starting goalie at his best in the net. If Darcy Kuemper is not at 100 percent, I do not want to see him on the ice. This has definitely been a strange season for the Coyotes in net, but to be fair we did have a long injury from goalie Antti Raanta last season, so goalies have never been our most durable position.

In the next few seasons I would expect the Coyotes are going to trade either Kuemper or Raanta to start to clear up the log jam of goalies currently in Arizona. Adin Hill is definitely showing he can play in the NHL, and our system has a few other goalies who are capable of playing as a starter someday.

The Kuemper setback does not bode well for us getting him back this season at the same level we had in December. There will be some rust when he does return, hopefully he comes back the same Darcy Kuemper that was on track to win a Vezina!

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