from Michael Traikos of the National Post,

If the playoffs have shown us anything, it’s that there aren’t many goalies at Vasilevskiy’s level to go around these days — especially now that Carey Price, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jonathan Quick have reached their expiration dates. There’s maybe one in New York (Igor Shesterkin), another maybe in Winnipeg (Connor Hellebuyck) and in Anaheim (John Gibson) and in Florida (Sergei Bobrovsky) and … well, that’s pretty much it.

That’s a big part of the reason why the Lightning are eyeing a third straight championship — and why Colorado, which has used 12 different goalies in the previous four years, hadn’t advanced past the second round until they traded a first-round pick (and more) to Arizona for Kuemper last summer.

At the time, it seemed like a steep price for someone who had only started 30 or more games twice in his 10-year career. But with Colorado now three wins away from winning a championship, it appears to be working out.

“It would be impossible not to go into the final and think that’s a huge advantage for Tampa,” said Sportsnet’s Kelly Hrudey, “but for a goalie on a team as great as Colorado, you only have to be so good. Let’s face it, there’s only a handful of guys at the very top. You say that and it almost seems like we’re being dismissive about the other guys. But we’re not because the guys in the middle, like Kuemper, have never been better.”

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