The Colorado Avalanche landed goaltender Darcy Kuemper from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a first-round draft pick and defenseman Conor Timmins.

The Avalanche Get: Their No.1 goaltender that they lost earlier in the day when Philipp Grubauer signed with Seattle. Kuemper was an elite netminder in this league for one-and-a-half seasons. Then he got into injury trouble. He suffered a lower-body injury in late 2019 that cost him 28 games. Upon his return, he lost three out of the four games he started before the pandemic shut the season down. Then he went 4-5 in the play-in/playoffs bubble with a 0.913 SV%. Last season he was again hit with a lower-body injury and his numbers ended up 10-11-3 with a 0.907 SV%.

All in all, since returning from the first injury, Kuemper is 15-19-3 with a 0.910 SV% and a 2.78 GAA. He also posted a 52.5% QS ratio.

The Coyotes Get: A top offensive prospect defenseman who is capable in his own end. However, Timmins was buried in Colorado behind Cale Makar, Sam Girard and Bowen Byram. On most teams, Timmins may have been a top fantasy own by now. He missed the entire 2018-19 season due to concussion.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Kuemper immediately becomes a Tier 1 goaltending own. His only drawback is the injury risk. He has really been battling those lower-body injuries. However, the Avalanche are no strangers to injury-prone goaltenders (see Semyon Varlamov, Pavel Francouz and Philipp Grubauer for details). Once in a while, those goalies stay healthy and the result is – well, you saw Grubauer last season when he was healthy. Elite.

Timmins leaves a crowded Colorado blueline so that eases things a little for Byram (not that he needed it). But where he goes is where things get interesting. With Arizona, there is Jakob Chychrun and Shane Gostisbehere – two very capable offensive-minded defensemen. Chychrun broke out last year and he won't be stopped. He is a now a legit and proven quarterback. Ghost, on the other hand, has seen his play fall off a cliff the last couple of seasons after knee issues. However, I got the sense that his knee surgery from a year ago cleared things up. However, last season he was never given a clear chance. The Flyers brought in Erik Gustafsson and during a shortened season, by the time they realized that Gustafsson sucked and Ghost wasn't so bad – the year was mostly over. There may still be hope for Gostisbehere owners. But those are the two that Timmins has to contend with. But that's one less player than he had in front of him in Colorado.

Hotshot prospect Victor Soderstrom showed us last season that he wasn't quite ready. If he makes the Coyotes, which isn't a certainty this year, he is probably not going to threaten Timmins' ice time and PP time. In fact, it is Timmins who threatens Soderstrom's.

📢 advertisement:

The Coyotes will not be riding Carter Hutton this year. That would make their tanking for Shane Wright way too obvious. No, Hutton is the backup. The starter will come either from a trade, or from one of a few free agent options out there – Devan Dubnyk, Aaron Dell, former Coyote Louie Domingue, ~~Craig Anderson~~ (not anymore – just signed with Buffalo!), Anders Nilsson or even Henrik Lundqvist if he gets medically cleared. None of those goaltenders are good…but honestly, they're better than Hutton, who was horrible in Buffalo. Horrible! So I expect the trade route. Perhaps they help Florida get out from under that Sergei Bobrovsky contract?

Fantasy Players This Helps, In Order: