Jamie McLennan believes that Arizona has a visibility problem.

“There are certain markets that just don’t get the fanfare,” the TSN hockey analyst and former NHL goaltender said. “Sometimes in the smaller markets, players get lost.”

That may be the case with Coyotes goaltender Darcy Kuemper. While Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, Dallas’ Ben Bishop, Las Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury, Toronto’s Frederik Andersen, the New York Islanders’ Robin Lehner and others are generating deserved consideration as candidates for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender, Kuemper’s candidacy is still languishing. His statistics, and his role in keeping the Coyotes in the Western Conference playoff race into the final week of the regular season, merit further examination.

Let’s start with a basic standard. Last season, Coyotes goalie Antti Raanta finished with the league’s best goals against average and best save percentage among starters who played at least half their team’s games. Raanta did not finish among the top nine goalies in Vezina voting. The Coyotes’ dismal season likely factored into that decision, but so did Raanta’s short résumé and market recognition, and the number of games he played.

“If that number doesn’t at least have a 50 in it, you’re probably not going to be considered as a finalist,” McLennan said. “You want to be able to compare a whole season, not just a pocket of a season.”

Raanta played 47 games. While Fleury finished fifth in voting last season with 46 games played, he does have the name recognition and he backstopped the best story in the 2017-18 season, the Golden Knights, to the Stanley Cup Final.

Kuemper won’t suffer from a shortage of games played. While he only took over as the starter after Raanta was lost for the season with a knee injury, the injury occurred in late November, and Kuemper was the official starter by early December. Kuemper’s body of work is plenty long. So is his durability.

Entering Thursday’s game at Vegas, he was tied for 11th in the NHL in games played (54). Despite taking a stick to the eye area on Tuesday against the Los Angeles Kings that forced him from the game, Kuemper was apparently feeling well enough to make his 22nd consecutive start against the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena, with the Coyotes still alive for the final Western Conference wild-card spot.

If 50 games is a cutoff for consideration (not everyone agrees), then consider these numbers. Among goalies who have played at least 50 games, Kuemper is first in goals against average (2.35) and second in save percentage (.924), trailing only Vasilevskiy (.925). He is fourth in shutouts (5).

If you dive beyond the traditional statistics, Kuemper leads the league in quality start percentage (.648) among goalies with at least 50 games played, and he is second in goals saved above (league) average (22.91).

This is not to suggest that Kuemper’s case is clear-cut. There are other numbers that diminish his argument. One of the advanced statistics that analysts rely on for goalies is high-danger save percentage. It tracks a goalie’s save percentage on shots from the prime scoring areas closer to the net and up the middle of the opponent’s offensive zone. In that statistic, and among qualifying goalies, Kuemper is 10th at .832. Nor is he among the top five in analyst Stephen Valiquette’s save percentage differential (the difference between expected and actual save percentage on all scoring chances).

Not every Vezina voter or analyst applies the same criteria to their decision, further muddying the waters. Some may rely on the aforementioned games played, or factor in a goalie’s durability, which could rule out Lehner, who has split duties with Thomas Greiss, or Bishop, who has played only 45 games due to injuries. Some may look at how a goalie finished and eliminate Anderson because he and the Leafs have floundered as the games have grown more intense.

Goalie charts are updated. Choosing someone other than Gibson for the Vezina this year will be crazy. It'll happen and it'll be crazy.https://t.co/rAJukqP8EA pic.twitter.com/Z4Z59frnSe — Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) April 3, 2019

“Beyond Vasilevksiy, there’s almost an excuse not to vote for every other guy in that conversation,” McLennan said. “Not every one of those guys has had a banner season, or done it over a full season’s time. (Montreal’s) Carey Price has had a very good season, but there was a moment this season when the Canadiens gave him a week off for a mental reset. (Boston’s) Tuukka Rask took a leave of absence. Has he played enough games? You can really poke holes in just about everybody’s argument.”

The same is true for goaltending statistics, including the traditional ones, which are equal parts goalie performance and team performance in front of him. A majority of the analytics and analyst communities agree that the existing advanced stats are inadequate tools for measuring goaltending performance. There are too many variables at play – the way a team defends in front of a goalie; the velocity, quickness and accuracy of the shots; a goalie’s movement before the shot; screens; deflections; human error in stat keeping; methodology, etc. – to take these numbers as gospel. It is instructive to note that two sites tracking the same statistics may show variance. Kuemper’s goals saved above average stat is entirely different on Natural Stat Trick than it is on Hockey Reference.

“It’s not an exact science and I look forward to maybe five years from now when there may be some really good applied analytics,” McLennan said.

For now, those numbers are all we have to supplement the eyeball test. It may be time for more analysts and voters to open their eyes to Kuemper’s performance this season.

“I have watched Darcy Kuemper since he was in Red Deer (Western Hockey League) and he has all the tools to be a high-end goalie in the National Hockey League,” NHL Network analyst and former NHL goaltender Kevin Weekes said. “He’s skilled, he’s technically sound, he’s in great shape and he has a great attitude.

“When I look at his game this season, he is on his feet more, he’s more patient, he’s playing more to his size, not crouching at the wrong time and making himself smaller or being on his knees longer than he needs to be on his post set-ups. By doing that, you present yourself as a bigger target to the shooter. Shooters only have a millisecond to process what they see and then make a decision. If they look at you and see you are imposing, it will give them second and third thoughts about shooting right away and what they want to do. That usually gives the advantage to the goalie.”

Entering this season, few knew if Kuemper was capable of shouldering a starter’s role. It was not even the Coyotes’ intent when they acquired him from the Kings last season – an organization that Weekes and others believe is ahead of the class in goaltender development.

“The big issue I had with Darcy Kuemper is I didn’t know if he had the speed,” former NHL goaltender and MSG Network analyst Martin Biron said. “You may move around the crease pretty well, but with goalies I look for that X-factor. I call it the pop. Are you able to read and react and really get there quick and be on your toes when there has been a really nice cross-ice pass, or will you come over with nice technical movements, a nice T-push and a nice stop and be in position but not efficient enough to make the save and win games in the National Hockey League?

“I didn’t know if he had that or had the skills to play a lot of games, but he has shown he does and I think he is a strong technical goaltender. He is very structured, very compact and there is not a lot of wasted movement. I don’t think he will be a flash in the pan. Now he may not be the team’s MVP every year, but I think he has shown enough that he can be a consistently good starting goalie.”

Which raises a question: Who will be the Coyotes’ starter next season if Raanta has fully recovered from knee surgery and proves he can move past the injuries that have plagued his first two seasons in Arizona? Coach Rick Tocchet gave a simple and logical answer: It will be an open competition in training camp.

“You have to earn your job,” Tocchet said. “It’s no different with Antti and Kuemps.

“We are starting to get some credibility around here and some depth to the point where you are going to have to start earning your ice time. They have both played in some big games and they have both passed the test. I like their mental toughness, but competition is good. I expect both to come into camp in great shape with great attitudes and compete for that job.”

Some analysts and coaches believe you have to have a clear-cut starter.

“You don’t want that extreme situation where you can’t rely on your backup, but the best teams like the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Washington Capitals have a defined No. 1,” Biron said. “Arizona could go into the season with a 1A and 1B situation and see how things go, but within the year you have to find out: Who is your No.1 and who is your No. 2?”

Others believe a goaltending tandem can work. On Long Island (and in Brooklyn), Lehner has played 45 games while Greiss has played 42. In Carolina, Peter Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney have essentially platooned.

“Could the Coyotes do what the Islanders did this year with Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss? Maybe,” Weekes said. “This is not like a quarterback controversy where you’re talking about 16 games. The NHL season is an 82-game grind. It’s a whole different kettle of fish. I get that some people try to look at the cross-over similarities because it is an individualized position within a team concept, but 82 games is a lot of games so you need depth at the position and no team will get there with one guy alone.

“It’s a case-by-case basis on what that looks like with your other guy, but I am not a believer that in every situation you have to have a guy that is going to play 60, 65, 70. I don’t know that a lot of guys can. The game is faster and more demanding on goalies with their movements. Is it 25, 30, 35, 40 starts for the other guy? I don’t know, but what you don’t want is a needless controversy. Sometimes those controversies are situational by way of the media. Sometimes they are situational by the way the coaching staff or organization handles or mismanages it. If they’re both there to be great teammates, then they will push each other and support each other.”

Some analysts have suggested the Coyotes must trade one goalie to avoid such a controversy. President of hockey operations John Chayka is not opposed to such a move if another team knocks his socks off with an offer, but the Coyotes only have to look back one season to see how devastating an injury and unstable backup situation can be. When Raanta was injured early in the 2017-18 season, the Coyotes’ goaltending situation went so far off the rails that the season was lost by the end of October.

“Goaltending is at an all-time high in value,” McLennan said. “If you don’t have somebody who can come in and absorb at least 30 to 35 starts – and I think Raanta is a guy who gets worn down – you have an issue. I know they have the (Tucson’s Adin) Hill kid and I think he is going to be all right, but why not allow him to continue to grow and gain more experience and when he pushes through that makes somebody expendable? I would much rather see a guy overripen in the minors and come up and give you instant minutes; be mentally mature enough to handle the duress. That’s why we see goaltenders get better with age. So much of it is between the ears.”

Here’s another fact to consider: Between Raanta and Kuemper, the Coyotes have just $6.1 million committed in cap hit next season, and $7.1 million in actual salary.

“It’s not a situation where you have Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen (a Stars’ previous goaltending tandem) making $11 million between the two of them and you have to trade one because it is putting the team in a tough position with the salary cap,” Biron said.

Kuemper has steadfastly refused to look down the road to next season. With the Coyotes still alive in the playoff race, he follows his coach’s mantra and remains in the present.

“I want to play as many games as I can every year,” he said. “Now that I’m getting that opportunity, it’s a lot of fun, but we’re in a big playoff push. It’s a lot more fun to be in the mix and having the games matter, so I just focus on the next game on the schedule instead of looking at the big picture. I am just trying to stay in the moment. That other stuff is out of my control.”

Tocchet echoed those thoughts.

“We have two excellent goaltenders who can carry the load,” he said. “That is a pretty good luxury to have. Antti is coming off injuries and he is hungry. Kuemps came in after how many years as backup and took a load as a star No. 1 and now he’s hungry for more.

“I’ve got two hungry goalies. That’s an awesome situation. We’ll sort out the other stuff later.”

(Photo: Norm Hall / Getty Images)