Sit Darcy Kuemper vs Devils in fantasy matchup

I hate to write bad things about Washington Capitals players. I really do. A lot of you know that. Sometimes I get criticism for being too nice. I won’t be nice in this one. If you have Darcy Kuemper on your fantasy team, it might be best to sit him in tonight’s game against the New Jersey Devils which promises to have so much offense.

There has been some good stats for Kuemper. Let’s get those out of the way. On Saturday vs. the Los Angles Kings, Kuemper stopped 23 of 26 shots earning his third win of the season.

Kuemper’s 66 wins since 2019-20 are the most among goaltenders with 125 or fewer starts in that span. Kuemper has a career record of 146-97-36. Among active goaltenders currently on an NHL roster with at least 300 games played, Kuemper ranks second in save percentage at .917 and goals against average with 2.49.

Since the 2017-18 season, Kuemper ranks first in the NHL in save percentage at .921 and second in goals against average with 2.45 in a minimum of 150 games played among goaltenders.

Okay now for the bad. The New Jersey Devils are the only NHL team Kuemper has not beaten in his career. He’s 0-5-2 in his career against the Devils.

It gets worse when you read the verbiage from Sean Allen of ESPN.com who also thinks you should bench Kuemper:

Darcy Kuemper, G, Washington Capitals (93.6%): As discussed above, the Devils keep their opponents very busy and, while Kuemper has been good from the perimeter (49 saves on 49 low-danger shots), he’s fared less well at close range (11 goals on 61 medium- and high-danger shots).

I will admit Kuemper hasn’t entirely impressed me but at the same time it’s still early in the season. He does let in those goals from close range as we saw on opening night when the Capitals got dominated by the Boston Bruins. He also hasn’t been lights out.

I was on the Kuemper train when the rumors started that the Caps were interested in him during free agency. But the fact he hasn’t been lights out like Braden Holtby was in his prime has me very concerned.

For the Capitals to win tonight they need to play a complete 60 minute game as cliche as it sounds. As fun as it is to comeback from deficits they can’t do that every single game and it could come back to bite the Caps later in the season.