"I thought he was a great player," said Carlson about Kempny after the Cup win. "He made a huge impact on our team. I thought we started to play our best hockey maybe 10, 15 games after he got here. I thought he played awesome in the playoffs. He's a great defender and he can skate. That's pretty much textbook what you want to have on your team."
The left-shooting Kempny appeared in 15 games for Washington last plus 24 American Hockey League appears for Hershey (PA). He has sustained and worked his back from three major injuries to his left leg in recent seasons.
Kempny was traded to Washington at the 2018 NHL trade deadline after two impressive seasons with Chicago. He stepped into a top-pair role with Carlson, including 24 playoff games in which he played stellar defense and logged two goals, three assists and 39 shots on goal.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Czech continued his strong play in the 2018-19 season (6 goals, 19 assists) and 2019-20 campaign (3G, 15A). He then incurred a torn hamstring, torn Achilles tendon and knee injury, all in his left leg, across 2020 and 2021. He trained aggressively with Czechia national team trainers last offseason to get back to NHL playing shape, including the necessary step of re-engaging the brain that the left leg was fully healed. He missed the entire 2020-21 season.
Kempny was a healthy scratch for the Capitals during the 2022 postseason but played regular minutes in eight games for bronze-medal Team Czechia at the recent International Ice Hockey Federation Men's World Championships in Finland.
Undrafted, the Hodonin, Czechia native has represented Czechia in three World Championships (2016, 2017, 2022) and one World Cup of Hockey in 2016. After seasons in top Czech leagues, Kempny played for Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) during the 2015-16 season, logging five goals and 16 assists in 51 regular-season games, plus two goals, two assists in 11 playoff games. He signed with Chicago in May 2016.
