Kraken GM: Philipp Grubauer to remain with team for 2025-26 season

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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - APRIL 12: Philipp Grubauer #31 of the Seattle Kraken warms up before a game against the St. Louis Blues at Climate Pledge Arena on April 12, 2025 in Seattle, Washington.  (Rio Giancarlo / Getty Images)

SEATTLE - Seattle Kraken general manager Jason Botterill affirmed that goaltender Philipp Grubauer will remain a part of the team next season with the NHL buyout window set to close on Monday.

"Philipp will be a part of our group here and stuff, for sure, and we'll continue to work on different things," Botterill said.

Grubauer is coming off a horrendous year with Seattle. He had a career-worst .875 save percentage, which was second-worst in the NHL among qualified goaltenders. He fractionally bested Alexandar Georgiev of the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks, who finished at .0004 behind Grubauer. The Kraken managed just eight wins in 26 games with Grubauer in goal.

Botterill said the team believes Grubauer can rebound from the down season and think the addition of new goaltending coach Colin Zulianello will help restore his form.

"Obviously, we brought in Colin to be our goalie coach. Moving forward here, we are going to have different things to work on from that standpoint," Botterill said. "We'll continue to look at different ways that we can improve the team in front of him. I think it's one of the things that Lane (Lambert)'s talked a lot about as a head coach in making sure that we play stronger in front of him and we'll continue to look at different ways to improve our goalie position, both with Joey (Daccord) and Philipp."

Seattle has to get better production from their second goaltender next season, whether it's Grubauer or otherwise. The NHL buyout window opened 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final and remains open until Monday. The Kraken have the option to buyout the remainder of Grubauer contract, worth $5.9 million in AAV over the next two seasons. It would cost two-thirds of the total $11.8 million value – roughly $7.87 million – spread out over four seasons.

"It's a situation that people sometimes think if you buy a player out, it just automatically goes away," Botterill said. "There's still a cap hit and stuff from that standpoint. And you know, we believe that Philipp can bounce back from that situation and we think there's an opportunity still for success here."

While a buyout would save the Kraken just shy of $4 million this year, a chunk of that would presumably go into the cost of signing another goaltender to back up Daccord. 

Grubauer praised the staff of Coachella Valley when he returned from a stint in the AHL during the season. Zulianello was the goaltending coach with the Firebirds and appeared to get on well with Grubauer, and previously Daccord.

However, Grubauer has repeatedly expressed his belief that he's a better goaltender when he's playing frequently. But the Kraken can't play Grubauer often if he gets shelled every time he plays.

Quotes:

– "We're ecstatic, obviously, to have Jake (O'Brien) a part of out system. Obviously, it's been evident that we've tried to build this organization through the center position. To get a young man like this who has, I think, elite hockey sense, we felt the draft had a lot of good centermen at the very top of the draft, but to get a player of Jake's makeup of hockey sense two-way play and then off the ice, a real competitive individual who understands this is just the beginning, and understands the development process and how much work has to go into it. So I think myself and the entire staff is very excited to have Jake as a Kraken." – Botterill on selection of Jake O'Brien 8th overall in the first pick of the NHL Draft.

– "It's been exciting to add to our core group. It's something that we wanted to talk about early on about adding different pieces to our group. I think adding a player like Mason (Marchment) to the group just improved our net-front presence, improved our size up front. Adding a player like Gaudreau just gives us, again, versatility in our sort of bottom-six player who can play center, play wing, right shot center. Just felt it was a good fit from that perspective. So obviously we've been happy so far with some of the trades. We'll certainly be involved with the free agent market. We'll see how things progress on July 1 from that standpoint. But we did want to make some trades. There's certainly some high-end players in the free agent market, but I don't think there's a lot of depth to the free agent market, so we felt the best way to improve our team was through some trades." – Botterill on the acquisitions of Mason Marchment and Frédérick Gaudreau through trades in the last two weeks.

MORE KRAKEN NEWS FROM FOX 13 SEATTLE

Seattle Kraken select Jake O'Brien with No. 8 pick in NHL Draft

Kraken acquire Freddy Gaudreau from Wild for 2025 draft pick

Mason Marchment looking forward to fresh start with Seattle Kraken after trade from Stars

Seattle Kraken trade André Burakovsky to Blackhawks for Joe Veleno

Seattle Kraken acquire Mason Marchment from Stars for pair of draft picks

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