The Seattle Kraken placed goaltender Philipp Grubauer on long-term injured reserve late Tuesday evening due to a lower-body injury.
Grubauer hasn’t played since Dec. 9 and was ultimately placed on standard injured reserve the following day after an overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
According to CapFriendly, the Kraken has $5.125 million in usable salary cap space.
Grubauer, 32, has struggled throughout his three years with the Kraken. He has a 5-9-1 record with a .884 save percentage, a step down from his .895 SV and 17-14-4 record last season. Grubauer would go on to play slightly better hockey during the postseason, going 7-7-0 with a .903 save percentage in the team’s first playoff run.
But in the regular season, Grubauer has yet to break into the .900 SV barrier yet. Given he had a 30-9-1 record with seven shutouts and a .922 SV in 2020-21 with Colorado, bigger things were expected from the German keeper, especially after signing a six-year deal worth $5.9 million per season.
Joey Daccord, meanwhile, has stolen the show in his first full year of NHL hockey. He has a 13-6-8 record with two shutouts and a .923 save percentage just one year after taking the Coachella Valley Firebirds to the Calder Cup final in its first year. Daccord never played more than eight games in a single NHL season before this season and never had more than two victories.
The Kraken also placed Matty Beniers on injured reserve late on Monday night and called up forward John Hayden from the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Seattle is coming off two consecutive losses this week, starting with a 3-0 result to Pittsburgh and a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers on Tuesday evening. Despite that, the Kraken have put themselves back in the playoff push with an 8-2-0 record over the past 10 games for 47 points, just two points behind both Nashville and Edmonton for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
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