Seattle Kraken Placing Philipp Grubauer On NHL Waivers Seemed Inevitable. Is A Buyout Next?

The Seattle Kraken placing veteran goaltender Philipp Grubauer on NHL waivers seemed inevitable.

Seattle continues to stumble through this season, going 5-8-1 since the turn of the calendar year. While GM Ron Francis has made tweaks to his roster – most notably, acquiring Kaapo Kakko from the New York Rangers in return for defenseman Will Borgen – Francis made a major move with Grubauer.

The move shouldn’t be shocking to anyone paying attention to Grubauer’s season. The 33-year-old has a 5-15-1 record, a 3.83 goals-against average, and a .866 save percentage. That is a glaring contrast to Joey Daccord's 17-12-2 record, .917 SP and 2.45 GAA.

Tuesday’s loss to Anaheim – when Grubauer allowed five goals on 22 shots – was the last straw for Francis and coach Dan Bylsma. Grubauer’s numbers would’ve looked terrible regardless of how much money he’s making, but his $5.9-million cap hit made them look worse.

Unless another GM has taken leave of their senses, Grubauer will clear waivers and can report to Coachella Valley of the AHL. In theory, he can get some conditioning in with the Firebirds and rejoin the team later.

Another option for the Kraken this summer is buying out the remainder of Grubauer’s contract – which runs for another two seasons after the current campaign. This was a bad contract from the get-go, as Grubauer has never posted an SP of .900 or better in his four years as a Kraken. With this move, the Kraken have made it clear that Grubauer is running out of opportunities at the NHL level with them.

A contract buyout would last four seasons. The Kraken would save about $3.92 million next season and about $2.82 million in 2026-27, according to PuckPedia. In 2027-28 and ’28-29, Seattle would lose about $1.683 million per campaign, but the salary cap rising could reduce that impact.

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The emergence of Daccord has allowed the Kraken to cut back on Grubauer’s workload. In his first year in Seattle in 2021-22, he appeared in 55 games. Due to injuries and Daccord's rise, that fell to 39 games in 2022-23, 36 games last season, and 21 games this year.

Grubauer isn’t the first netminder to be sent to the AHL to try and find his game again – the Pittsburgh Penguins sent Tristan Jarry to the AHL for the second time this season – and he won’t be the last. But his salary and subpar play made this demotion inevitable. And now, the Kraken have to move on without him.

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