(Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
These three players from the Stanley Cup winners Colorado Avalanche will be absent next season.
The Colorado Avalanche have been 2022 Stanley Cup champions for a little over a week, but it’s time to draw attention to the upcoming free agents who will lose the Avs.
There are a number of notable players on this masterful team including Nazem Kadri, Darcy Kuemper, Josh Manson, Andre Burakovsky and Valeri Nichushkin.
As of today, the Avs are expected to have about $25 million in cap space for the upcoming season, enough to re-sign some, but certainly not all, of the upcoming free agents.
Colorado Avalanche: 3 Players Who Won’t Return Next Season
#3 – Goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper
The 32-year-old Darcy Kuemper, the second highest-paid goaltender in the entire league last season, will become a free agent for the second time of his career.
Kümper ranked sixth among goalies who achieve free hand percentage of defense with a .921 mark. Though his performance was at times unreliable (he recorded the lowest save rate of any Stanley Cup champion goaltender since 1988), it’s worth noting that he played a good chunk of the Stanley Cup final with an eye injury sustained early in the season series had drawn.
Kuemper went into the playoffs 37-12 with the Avs in the regular season and then 10-4. A three-time All-Star with playoff experience (and success), he’ll be lining up for a juicy payday this offseason. With the Avalanche having to invest a large portion of their available funds into an overtime for superstar Nate MacKinnon, Kuemper may have already played his last game in Colorado.