The Seattle Kraken have finally pulled the plug on a difficult situation, placing their $5.9 million goalie, Philipp Grubauer, on waivers with the intention of assigning him to the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the American Hockey League.
The drastic move from Seattle’s front office comes the morning after Grubauer allowed five goals on 22 shots in a 6-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, a game in which Jackson Lacombe’s squeaker from distance torpedoed Seattle’s hopes of winning a game it absolutely had to have.
What led to this?
It’s been a rough road for Grubauer with the Kraken ever since he signed a six-year contract as a free agent before Seattle’s inaugural 2021-22 season. Coming off a year in Colorado that resulted in him being named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, hopes were high that the now-33-year-old German netminder could backstop the fledgling franchise into relevance quickly.
But aside from some positive flashes here and there, the consistency was never there for Grubauer after his move to the Pacific Northwest, and he seemed to allow a stinker in almost every game he played.
When we asked coach Dan Bylsma after the loss to Anaheim on Tuesday if defensive breakdowns happen more frequently with Joey Daccord in net than with Grubauer, Bylsma gave a definitive, “No,” a damning reply on how he viewed his two netminders.
While we were hopeful there would be a bounce back from Grubauer this season, it has instead been the worst campaign of his career. At 5-15-1 with a 3.83 goals-against average and an .866 save percentage, Grubauer has statistically fallen into “worst goalie in the NHL” territory.
Shocking, yet predictable
I have witnesses who can confirm I asked the question aloud on Tuesday, “Is this the last time we’ll see Philipp Grubauer play at Climate Pledge Arena?” So, I’m not altogether surprised that this happened. The situation had become untenable, given that the highly paid netminder could not even be relied upon to help the Kraken manage the occasional back-to-back. And something felt different after the game Tuesday. It took Bylsma longer than usual to come out to address media, which may or may not have been related to this move, and for some reason, the defeat seemed to take on a greater significance than others.
Although winning is no longer all that important, since Seattle is in contention for a lottery pick in the next NHL Draft, the team still has to play the remaining 35 games on the schedule and be semi-competitive. Bylsma clearly didn’t feel comfortable using Grubauer anymore, as signified by Daccord appearing in 10 consecutive games before he finally got a full night off on Tuesday. So, I did accurately predict that the loss to Anaheim would be the final straw before this move was made.
Even so, thinking of the big picture, it is difficult to grasp that it came to this. When Grubauer was signed, I thought it was such a brilliant move by general manager Ron Francis. But for whatever reason, Grubauer just never found his game on a consistent enough basis with the Kraken, and the entire organization and its fanbase felt the impact of his continuous struggles.
Disappointing from a human perspective
I’m really bummed the Grubauer Era has played out this way. Aside from what happened on the ice, he is a good human who went far above and beyond the call of duty of a professional athlete to connect with the fanbase. Think about all the different types of outreach and marketing activations you’ve seen Grubauer participating in over the past four years. He didn’t have to do all that, but he did it to further ingrain himself in the local community and help the organization establish its roots.
He also quickly attached himself to the Pacific Northwest and made the area his true home. I remember interviewing him for an episode of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast and asking him about that. He told me Seattle didn’t feel like his home; rather, it is his home.
Plus, I know he’s a better goalie than what he’s shown during much of his time here. I don’t know what went wrong on the ice, but some of the glimpses we saw were reminders of just how talented he is, including the dazzling glove save he made on Trevor Zegras on Tuesday.
And let’s not forget, his mother traveled all the way from Germany to see him play that game against the Ducks as part of the Kraken moms trip, and it could very well end up being the last game he plays in the NHL; I really hope that’s not the case.
Worth noting, Bylsma was on 93.3 KJR Wednesday and indicated this isn’t the end of the road for Grubauer with the Kraken, and that he can play his way back to the NHL club.
Financial implications and what’s next
One of the reasons Grubauer lasted this long on the NHL roster is because he is on a massive contract that runs for two more seasons after the current one. Assuming he clears waivers (he will), he will be expected to report to Coachella Valley. This does not mean that his full $5.9 million cap hit comes off Seattle’s books, though.
A team can only “bury” up to $1.15 million in the AHL, so the Kraken will likely still carry $4.75 million of Grubauer’s cap hit, and they will need to add in the dollars of Ales Stezka, who is on his way to Seattle to back up Daccord.
Bylsma said there wasn't going to be playing time available with schedule ahead and 4 Nations Face-Off break. Move of Grubauer to Coachella Valley gives him a chance to play to try and get his game back on track.
— Curtis Crabtree (@Curtis_Crabtree) January 29, 2025
Potential is there for him to come back up to the Kraken. https://t.co/JqNbV58hQX
Also, barring some unforeseen circumstance like a trade or the team and Grubauer mutually agreeing to part ways (both unlikely), Seattle could end up buying out Grubauer’s contract after this season.
By buying him out, he will no longer be on the roster and will become a free agent after this season. However, Seattle will still carry a discounted cap hit of $1.983 million next season, then $3.083 million in 2026-27. The Kraken also get further penalized for the early buyout, as they will continue to have a cap hit for two more seasons after that (even though his contract ends after 2026-27) of $1.683 million in 2027-28 and 2028-29. (Buyout numbers come from Puckpedia.)
Darren Brown
Darren Brown is the Chief Content Officer at soundofhockey.com and the host of the Sound Of Hockey Podcast. He is a member of the PHWA and is also usually SOH’s Twitter intern (but please pretend you don’t know that). Follow him @DarrenFunBrown and @sound_hockey or email darren@soundofhockey.com.
Wow. Was his mom on the plane back to Germany yet??
Poor guy. This was overdue based on his performance, and he does get paid regardless, but this still sucks for him and by all accounts he is a wonderful guy who tries hard. Feel bad for him.
Feel free to give me 5 million a year for 6 years then proceed to say all the bad things about me you want. I could take the abuse, honest.
You may not think it be like it is, but it do
Honestly I thought something like this might have been in play after the debacle against the Sharks from a few weeks ago. Ultimately this is the probably best move for everyone involved. Assuming Stezka is the new backup, he’ll get a chance to make his NHL debut, and Gru gets a chance to reset in a lower pressure environment. Grubauer seems like a great person, but it just hasn’t worked for him in Seattle. According to MoneyPuck, here are the GSAX numbers for Seattle’s tandem this season:
Daccord: 16.3 GSAX, 3rd out of 90 goalies
Grubauer: -17.5 GSAX, 90th out of 90 goalies
To me it seems like Grubauer’s style of playing goalie never really meshed with Seattle’s defensive structure the way Daccord’s has. I don’t exactly have a great hockey scouting eye, so I’d be curious to hear what others think about this.
Good guy, nothing personal. But objectively he’s no longer an NHL level goalie. Worst starting goalie in the league over the last 4 years. I wish him luck, but elsewhere out of Kraken team.
Glad we finally made this late but right decision.
I’ve been one of the most vocal critics of Grubauer ever since year 1, and yet, I feel no joy. I’m really bummed this is how it worked out. He was supposed to be a stud from day 1, and instead, turned in one of the worst goalie seasons in recent years. Seasons 2 and 3 were adequate if below average, and this season has been even worse than year 1.
I couldn’t help but think about how badly the entire team has been when watching the game last night. Their defensive structure, especially, is incredibly fickle. But if it’s so bad, why has Joey been so awesome especially by comparison? Is it just that Grubauer makes the defense look bad because he rarely if ever bails them out? Or the defense plays better in front of Joey due to confidence and positive juju?
Whatever the case, I am glad RF finally had to basically admit his mistake. The final admission will be buying him out this summer. In a weird way, that would give me some hope.
The only joy I get from this is knowing that I no longer need to read through essays of repeated and recycled Grubi hate.
Can’t wait to find out who our next whipping boy will be.
I mean, it was all very well deserved. As Darren said, he has been statistically the worst goalie in the NHL by no small margin.
I’ve already moved on to my next target — the coaching staff.
I totally agree Boist. Coaching is of thee poorest quality and needs a change along wi Ron Francis at the end of the year.
I agree the coaching has been very suspect, although given the success we’ve seen just with the addition of Kakko I think it’s clear that the primary issue is still our roster build. We need more skill and more youth, preferably both in the same package.
Also correct. I think it’s both. This already old team is two years older than it was when it made the playoffs. NHL players tend to not age will into their 30s, unless you’re Jaden Schwartz, apparently.
It’s not hate when a goalie puts up some of the worst – if not the worst – numbers in the NHL and the other goalie on the same team does not.
I wish it would have worked out for Gru here because it would mean the Kraken would be winning more games. But facts are facts – it was time to move on because the Kraken have to find at least a serviceable back up to Daccord by next season.
long overdue
One egregious underperformer down, one to go.
Burky the other one?
Yup. Thought he might get healthy scratched after his Edmonton performance but no such luck.
Ron Francis?
I’m on board with both Burky and RF.
A younger version of me would say “Good – he sucks!” This older version still supports the move, but I feel terrible for the guy. Everything has completely fallen apart for him.
I had the opportunity to meet Grubauer one time so I know I’m biased, but if there is anyone who doesn’t deserve the personal vitriol thrown his way, it’s him. It reminds me of how one of the most perplexing things about our series with Colorado two years ago was seeing how the Avs fanbase and even media turned on their team in such a hate-filled-toddler-tantrum fashion just because they got beat by the Kraken. I vowed after that if I ever started “fanning” that way, I would just stop watching hockey altogether.
Nobody dislikes Grubauer as a person. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
While Gru has not been great for us, this season the team has just hung him out to dry almost every game he starts. Only so much a goalie can do when the offense or defense (or both) is playing like crap when he’s in net. Again, not an excuse, but it’s definitely a thing for sure. Feel for the guy.
Fortunately we never give up any breakaways or high danger chances when Daccord is in goal.
Daccord’s puck handling ability is a big difference maker, especially on a team that is garbage against a strong forecheck like we are.
Agreed with Joe Z. Burakovsky departure is long overdue and he must go asap.
I will pop back on here to look for those posters who took umbrage when I suggested the Kraken waive Gru. I wonder what they say now?
Terrible goalie for the Kraken from the get-go and RF’s biggest mistake. Glad he can finally admit it, although three years too late. Wonder who goes next?
The sentiment here is mostly “yeah PG had to go, and yet I feel bad for him personally.” As has become his MO, Chuckie logs on to gloat and remind everyone how smart he is. Go home Chuckles, your act is tired….
Your just a breath of fresh air
Actually Joey is 17-12-2… .580 which would be good enough for wild card No.1… but whatever. The defense sucks.
I’d like for all if this to just blow over and let the team move on… but after three plus years of excuse making and finger pointing… is there no shame?
Ron Francis is an idiot.
Dave Hakstol got fired.
The defense stinks.
Dan Bylsma is no better.
Does anyone feel bad for those people? Does anyone feel bad for making excuses for this guy time and time again… and it’s never enough?
I’ve said this quietly to a few folks because I’d rather not be a total pariah… but seriously… is there another hockey town in the NHL that would pretend this guy has been anything other than gawd-awful for his entire tenure in Seattle? And it’s not just the fans, as I mentioned recently, after that disaster against the Sharks earlier this season the post-game panel lined up with the excuses and only Linda Cohn was willing to call bullshit!
Is everyone out of their frigging mind? Just look at the difference… it’s not the roster, or the defense, or the usage, or the run support or the price of pickles… it’s been Grubauer… and folks have gotten so used to making excuses they don’t even bother to consider what they’re saying. ‘If only the defense didn’t make any mistakes’. Two weeks ago Curtis said Joey has been “pretty good” and Grubauer has been “fine”. Pretty good!?!? Fine!?!?… AYFKM? Of course those statements were followed up with, “it’s the defense”. It’s not the defense, it’s not the GM, it’s not the coach, and Joey is good… but he’s not that good… it’s been Grubauer that’s responsible for Grubauer.
And yet… I fear this is going to turn into a “reset” for Grubauer and we’ll see him again after the 4-Nation’s Faceoff… with a fresh batch of newly minted excuses.
Go Kraken!!!
Daryl, I don’t know how you watch these games and come away with the impression that our D is not also a major problem. They are making mistakes that my 10 year old daughter knows not to make. Dunn’s absolute pizza to McTavish being a case in point of the kind of disconnected lackadaisical play we’ve seen a lot of this year.
I certainly hope your right that Grubauer is the whole issue here, that would obviously mean we’re about to see a much better end to the season, but I don’t have the same level of confidence in the scope of the problem.
Turbo your right Grubauer isn’t the whole problem and we definitely have some defensive issues as well as offensive issues. Probably 1/3 of the nhl could be placed into the same category, Grubauer has been his own problem. We really are a team that needs a lot of work getting rid of Grubauer helps a lot but won’t be the golden arrow that’s going to fix all our problems. I believe we’re one game over 500 when Grubauer didn’t play this season, definitely not stellar numbers.
No, not stellar, but if we’re 1 game above .500 (real, not fake), we’d be in a playoff spot instead of fighting for a top 4 pick. That is pretty stark.
Well I was wrong he’s not one game over 500, Darrell corrected me but on the wrong reply line…
“Actually Joey is 17-12-2… .580 which would be good enough for wild card No.1… but whatever. The defense sucks”
Last season this team was in the top ten in the league in defense. This season I dove into the numbers and to me they are more a middle of the league defense that gives up a few too many high-danger chances but mostly keeps shots to the outside, which is good. Joey’s 2.45 GAA would be good enough for fourth in the league if he were a team. Only Dallas, Winnipeg, and Washington give up less goals a game as a team than Joey does. Is Joey really THAT good? You think the team makes mistakes comparable to your 10 year old daughter’s team?… yet Joey holds NHL competition to 2.45 goals against per game? Move over Connor Hellebuyck.
Maybe the defense seems so horrendous because every time Grubauer is in net there’s an autopsy on every mistake so folks can excuse the goalie.
The defense is fine. Every defense makes mistakes, but most teams rely on their goaltender to pick up the slack. That’s their job.
I think that’s where we disagree Daryl. Joey HAS been that good, and the advanced stats and eye test would back up that he’s been just a notch below Hellebuyck all season. Our top D pair in Dunn and Lars have gotten uncharacteristically caved in this year and it’s resulted in the type of high danger and unmarked chances we’ve seen. Dunn in particular has struggled in ways we aren’t used to seeing.
This is a problem because I’m not sure if this is sustainable for Joey, but who knows, maybe he is the next Hellebuyck.
And yes my daughters team knows not to throw pizzas in front of their own net (still happens from time to time though)
Actually, you and I don’t really disagree all that much here. I also think Joey has been something close to THAT good. I’ve been all over that since D10… the day Gru went out on IR last season – December 10th. But even that, to me, is not enough to explain how this team goes from being defensively sound to a black hole… but only in front of one goalie. I do think some of it could be what Darren has mentioned… they play different in front of Gru… but I think a lot of it is folks tuned into mistakes more when they end up in the back of the net… and that’s all about Gru.
A week or so ago I dug in and found them middle of the league in shots on goal against… lots more numbers to go with that but they weren’t in the range of that being the problem.
I guess this is where I’m seeing a different game. They aren’t being defensively solid with Joey in net, he’s just bailing them out at an alarming frequency.
Moneypuck has the Dunn/Larsson line at 102/115 eligible pairings in xGA/60. That’s not explainable simply by having a bad backup goaltender. You don’t go from a top 10 D to a bottom 8 D solely because of your backup. Our top D pairing has been out of sorts for long stretches and while it hasn’t been talked about much, Dunn in particular has taken a significant step back defensively.
This is why Bylsma’s comment last night needs to be taken into proper context: He openly stated that the D left Grubauer out to dry, when asked if they leave him out to dry more than Daccord, he said “no.”
A lot of people interpreted that as being damning to Grubauer’s play, but it’s clearly damning to their attention to details on defense as well.
When I look at the xGA and I see they’re near the bottom of the league I find that curious, especially when I see they’re actually around middle of the league in shots on goal against. When I look a little closer I see they’re actually giving up a ton of shot attempts and shots on goal from long range… and that adds up to a bunch of xGA even though most of that is very low scoring percentage… except Grubauer is not only bottom of the league in save percentage… he’s bottom of the league in low-danger save percentage as well.
They’re keeping shots to the outside where you want them, but that hasn’t helped Grubauer in the same way it’s helped Joey… and the volume adds up to a bunch of “not really expected goals against”.
That’s just what I’ve found when I’ve looked into it.
To me it’s really hard to believe we could coincidentally have the best AND the worst goalie in the league. I’m gonna go with just one of those.
RF’s biggest mistake?
Surely that was his terrible expansion draft.
Looking forward to you popping back on here to admit you didn’t know what the hell you were talking about when you said Francis needlessly burned the first year of Matty’s ELC.
It’s not a good look when you vomit up a bunch of crap, and then drag your arm across your chin and say, “Look, I told ya so, somebody puked.”
Chuck (if you read replies): I apologize as I shouldn’t have been so snarky in my initial response.
I appreciate your knowledge – you have great insights and ask interesting questions. I like SOH because all the authors and posters clearly love the game and by reading articles/posts I learn more about every aspect of the game – players, teams, strategy, stats, coaching – everything, and I enjoy it immensely. Seems recently that folks have gotten kind of testy (myself included obviously) – mostly a function (I believe) of the incredible frustration regarding how badly this team has performed relative to (even modest) expectations.
This is twice I’ve reacted negatively to someone when I should have just let it go. I will refrain from doing this going forward (you can hold me to it) and will focus on being positive and enjoying the great articles written by Darren, John, Curtis, Cameron and others. And of course, the insights offered by you, Nino. Daryl, Boist, Foist and a host of others.
Fa
Whoops, anyway, should have happened 2 yrs ago. Grub gave us some good games and worked hard but it was obvious then he wasn’t going to be able to keep up. Thanks Grub. Time to wise up RF. Also, I don’t know that I can watch another game if Burky is playing in it. Really. I can’t take .
The Avs are laughing so hard, everything we touched from them turned out to be garbage.
This move is far too late and i had hoped we could have found a sucker to take him off our hands this past summer. Gms seem to be smarter now except for the Krakens. When the team is not on the same page on the ice, you cannot always blame the players. I had hooped Blysma would help but his choices in his assistants was a poor one. This on Francis too. This is not a critique of people but a critique of skills only.
If you want to win in this league you can’t have a glaring weakness at netminder 30% of the time. Grubauer might be a good guy but he has played himself out of the league. Now we need to ditch Burakovsky, trade Tanev and Gourde, and launch a youth movement.
Assuming the intent is to send him down to CV, he should be able to play down there while 4 nations is happening, since there are AHL games on the schedule while the NHL is on break. So theoretically, Joey can finish out the games up to the break, Gru can try to get some sort of groove back and the team doesn’t actually need a second goalie until March.
I’m curious who comes up now that the deed has been done. I loved what I saw from Kokko for a brief second during training camp and he is definitely playing much better than Stezka at least on paper. I personally wouldn’t worry about burning a year at the moment, if he’s the better option bring him up. He can always be sent back down after 9 games.
They’re not gonna rush kokko. It’s gonna be Stezka.
You’re probably right but a 28 year old career minor league goalie with a poor AHL record doesn’t exactly give me high hopes. Maybe he will be slightly better than Grubauer with around a 300k cap savings after we put him on the roster? You’d think we’d have bigger ambitions than that but I don’t know, maybe a trade is in the works?
Does anyone else think that there may have been something physically wrong with Grubauer the last couple weeks? He has had a bad season, but these last couple weeks his play has just looked different. It’s not like letting in soft ones or getting shelled is so strange for him or any other goaltender, but the way that he was playing–deep in net and diving around like Arturs Irbe–is just not his style. It looked to me like something was just wrong.
It looked to me like he may have pulled a groin or something similar during the Utah game (honestly probably one of his best regular season games in Seattle).
The thing with Gru, from the very first season, is that you can always sense the clunkier goal coming – and it always seems to come at a time that absolutely kills any the momentum the team had going. So so so many response goals. So many goals after a successful PK, etc. It’s like he’s not able to mange that rush of adrenaline from something successful, momentarily loses focus and the other team capitalizes.
He was very good when revenge was on his mind “Avs playoffs”.
My guess he was a little pissed that they won the cup as soon as he was gone.
“When we asked coach Dan Bylsma after the loss to Anaheim on Tuesday if defensive breakdowns happen more frequently with Joey Daccord in net than with Grubauer, Bylsma gave a definitive, “No,” a damning reply on how he viewed his two netminders.”
Darren, Can I just point out how *awesome* it is we have you in there asking questions? Instead of just mindless drones who see their job as pushing buttons on a cliche machine? This was such a great, on-point question. I saw it was mentioned in the Seattle Times too.
Definitely this is why independent media is so important. If we wanted the easy questions and answers we’d be reading the kraken PR machine.
I’m interested to hear peoples take on Bob Woods… is he PP/PK and defensive coach?
I have hated our D this year.. so passive and lazy. While there has been some bug mistakes from Evans and Mahoura i think Dunn, Larsson and Oleksiak have been quite disappointing. Im undecided on Monty, i think he is good but I’d like to know more about our defensive systems.. tell me smart people…
I’ll give you my opinion but it doesn’t necessarily mean I’m right or particularly smart 😂
I don’t like his system I think it’s very passive and his version of zone coverage is so simple and easy to read. Teams are finding a lot of holes in our coverage that I believe it mostly system driven. Really the same can be said about Jessica’s PP, I think both assistant coaches are in over their heads.