5 free agents the Capitals should sign

#4 Darcy Kuemper

One player the Caps could pursue at goaltender is Darcy Kuemper of the Colorado Avalanche, who just won a Stanley Cup with them, besting the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. That ended Tampa Bay’s two Cup winning streak.

Although he helped the Avs win their first Stanley Cup since 2001, he enters this summer as a pending free agent. He spent 10 NHL seasons with four different teams and would be a slam dunk to be the Caps number one goalie with either Vitek Vanecek or Ilya Samsonov backing up.

In his career, Kuemper posted a .918 save percentage with a 2.48 goals against average. In four of the last five seasons, he’s posted save percentages of .920, .925, .928, .907, .921. With the Avalanche this past season he had a 25.1 goals saved above average.

Kuemper is 32 years old and a downside to his game is that he did have injury issues. His last contract was $4.5 million and he will certainly be looking for a big pay day as he’s in the final legs of his NHL career.

The Caps would love nothing more to win a Cup again and adding a Cup winning goaltender could help mentor a young Vanecek or Samsonov. He’s definitely one of the best on the market that could be a great fit with the Caps.