The goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer was below average this season, is probably the understatement of the decade. Grubauer has lean profits in 21 in ’24 -’25-’25 played games. To expand this, he currently has a dark percentage of 0.866 savings and a hit against an average of 3.83. Yes, hockey is a team sport, but his counterpart Joey Daccord has 17 wins in 33 games played as well as a savings of 0.917 (4th in the league) and a GAA of 2.41 (8th overall). The team just plays better in front of Daccord and Joey makes the important parades when the team needs them the most. The same does not apply to Grubauer.
When GM Ron Francis signed Grubauer shortly after the draft expansion, it was assumed that Philipp found his groove between the pipes. He had a season that he was given second in Vezina Trophy votes and was awarded annually for the top goalkeeper in the regular season. He had a career year in ’20 -’21 by winning 30 games for the Colorado Avalanche. The hope in Seattle was to reproduce this success, albeit far from being far from reality. In his first four years of the six -year contract of Kraken, he has a saving of 0.888 and a GAA of 3.15. These numbers just don’t cut it. Sure, he helped the octopus in game No. 7 of the Western Conference in ’22 -’23-but it was more about playing the team better before him. In these playoffs, he still allowed an average of three goals per game.
The Seattle Kraken has two more seasons with its contract of 5.9 million US dollars. You cannot keep this big money on your squad as a backup goalkeeper and at the same time provide lack of lack of statistics. So what can this team do?
Option 1: Establishment
The octopus was able to bring Grubauer to waiver, just like Daniel Sprong. This gives all 31 NHL teams the opportunity to claim it and take his entire Seattle contract. The likelihood that someone claims to have in the middle of the season are slim to not at all. This means that he would clarify exceptional regulations and be sent to Coachella Valley to find his game again. If Francis does this, this means that the GM Ales Stezka calls that has no NHL experience. If this is done, this probably means that Francis will throw the towel in the towel this season by lowering his losses. As much as I think that Grubau takes time to find his game again, I still don’t see how Francis pulls this trigger. Until he published three hours after this article.
Option 2: Buyout
This option is not ideal for Seattle because it would be hit with a cap for a while. And if the octopus would buy the rest of the remaining 2.5 year contract from Grubauer, they would have a cap of 1.683 million dollars for four more seasons. The octopuses would pay two thirds of the remaining salary-what means that they would pay Grubauer $ 6.73 million in order not to play in the PNW. This also does not solve the above -mentioned target depth problem.
Option 3: trade
Most teams do not want to take on a big contract for a fighting goalkeeper in the middle of the season. However, the opportunity for the Seattle octopus to give Grubauer a fresh start and at the same time find his replacement. The Pittsburgh Penguins have just laid goalkeeper Tristan Jarry on waiver. Jarry has her own fights this season with a percentage of 0.884 and 3.31 GAA-GATE for the 34th place in the NHL. The first instinctive comment is likely: “Why should Pittsburgh make this trade?”
Jarry has three years in his contract and an average of 5.3 million US dollars a year. In the meantime, Grubauer has two years with 5.9 million US dollars per. This enables Pittsburgh to conclude a difficult contract a year earlier. This also enables the octopus a goalkeeper who is two years younger, 600,000 US dollars cheaper and connects the west coast. He comes from British Columbia and played juniors with the Edmonton Oil Kings. And he also has connections to Jared McCann after playing together in Pittsburgh from 2019 to 2021.
In some cases, the story has shown that trading with a new location in its career has a fresh start and a revival. Most recently, the Washington Capitals and the La Kings for the goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper made a one-to-one player trade with striker Pierre-Luc Dubois. Dubois has one of the best seasons of his career and has scored 34 points in 44 games so far. In the meantime, Kuemper has a hot season and has a percentage of 0.923 and a GAA of 2.11 and places it in goalkeeper statistics near the NHL. The same options could be in stock with Jarry for Grubauer.
It is clear that the time for Gru in the deep came and gone. He has to find a new home to revive his career. I wish the “German gentleman” nothing but the best – and I want to welcome Tristan Jarry to the boy from the PUGET sound.
