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The Best Story No One Talks About in Sports

November 17, 2019, 12:12 PM ET [86 Comments]
James Tanner
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The Coyotes are 8th in the NHL standings right now.

They are tied for third in the West.

There is one reason for this and one reason only: Darcy Kuemper.

The Coyotes have no first line talent - at least they do not have a franchise altering offensive superstar. This cost them the playoffs last year, and so they went out and picked up Phil Kessel.

Kessel has played better than his numbers indicated, but the guy has three goals.

The Coyotes should not be anywhere near three points out of first in the West, but they have received the best goaltending in the NHL.

Last night Darcy Kuemper had another shut-out and the Coyotes won 3-0.

This pushes Kuemper's save percentage to .937% and makes him the best goalie int he NHL since the beginning of last season.

The Coyotes have the distinction of being arguably the team to get the best goaltending season of all time while missing the playoffs. This year they hope to at least make it.

If you get the goaltending they got last year, you should be an absolute lock to make the playoffs.

Was it a fluke people asked? Kuemper had been on waivers, it'd been ten years since he'd been drafted and nothing indicated that the 28 year old career back-up was going to be a star player.

Even when it happened, most, me included, wrote it off as one of those things that happens in the NHL. Basically, any random NHL goalie capable of getting a start in the NHL can go on an unpredictable run of magic.

Garret Sparks was the Leafs AHL superstar who they developed for years and had high hopes for in the NHL - he busted out, got traded, hit waivers and is now the 4th string goalie for the Golden Knights.

He's only a year removed from "best goalie outside the NHL" status. Meanwhile, Jordan Binnington was ranked well below Sparks on the hype meter, showed up randomly, took a last place team to the Stanley Cup Finals and got jobbed on the Calder Trophy along the way.

In a game where the margins are razor thin and the "experts" mostly guess, anything can happen.

But at what point do we move from fluke to star in our assessments?

Binnington won a Cup and is now a star player.

Kuemper should have won the Vezina, and currently he should be mentioned among Connor McDavid when people talk about the best players in the NHL.

Without any hype or exaggeration, he has probably been worth more wins to the Coyotes in the last year and a half than McDavid has been to the Oilers.

Such is the nature of goalies in this game.

But at a certain point, we've got to acknowledge that he has been amazing.

This isn't just a thing that Kuemper deserves, it's also a great story. If you haven't made it by 28 you aren't making it in 99.9% of cases. He's a 6th round pick from 2009.

You don't come out of the depths of backup goalies and become Dominick Hasek in your late 20s - unless you are in fact, Dominick Hasek.

Drafted in 1983 (you heard me) Hasek was backing up Ed Belfour in 1991, got traded to the Sabres for essentially nothing and then played less than 30 games, posing unimpressive stats.

It wasn't until the next year, age 28, when he posted a bonkers 1.95 GAA and the rest is history.

Now, I'm not saying that Kuemper is going to go down as the best goalie of all-time, but I'm just saying there is precedent for a guy his age to go from nobody to superstar.

At this point in time, Darcy Kuemper is the best goalie in the NHL. He is also one of the best stories in the game and instead of talking about Don Cherry or how bad the Leafs suck, this should be THE story in the NHL right now.
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