Avs goalie Grubauer, a pending free agent, on pace for payday
Philipp Grubauer’s statistics suggest he’s worth more than $9 million per season.
The Avalanche goalie, a pending unrestricted free agent, leads the NHL with a 1.69 goals-against average, five shutouts, 27 appearances, and 1,600 minutes played. His .931 save percentage and 20 wins are close behind Tampa’s Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (.932/21), who has a $9.5 million annual cap hit through 2027-28.
Vasilevskiy is the NHL’s thirdhighest-paid goalie, behind Montreal’s Carey Price ($10.5 million) and Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky ($10 million).
The obvious separation between Grubauer, 29, and Vasilevskiy, 26, is that the latter led the Lighting to the Stanley Cup last fall. Grubauer is bound to strike it rich if the Avalanche does the same this year.
Question is, will the Avs be able to afford him? Grubauer, who is on the last year of a three-year deal worth $9,999,999, was asked Friday about his next contract.
“We are so busy, and my main focus lays on Vegas (Saturday) and stopping the puck (Saturday),” he said of a possible extension with the Avs. “Everything else is going to take care of itself. If it’s now or in a week or a couple months or like after the season — I don’t think there is any rush to do that right now. We’re focused on winning the game (Saturday) and then the Stanley Cup.”
Standard response for a guy who will be better served if he waits until after the season to negotiate his next deal if he continues his excellent play.
The Avs have just $748,049 of cap space under the $81.5 million limit, according to CapFriendly.com, and tough roster decisions loom next season. Left wing and team captain Gabe
Landeskog (current $5,571,429 cap hit) is also a pending free agent and star defenseman Cale Makar ($880,833) is a pending restricted free agent. They, along with Grubauer, are going to seek raises.
But the Avs don’t have enough money coming naturally off the books. They likely won’t resign pending UFA forwards Brandon Saad ($5 million), Matt Calvert ($2.85 million) and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare ($1.8 million), who combine for $9.65 million, and they’ll part ways with defenseman Greg Pateryn ($2.25 million).
They also will lose a good player in the Seattle expansion draft. The Avs, like all teams, can protect seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goalie. All first- or second-year NHL players are exempt from selection along with those who have no-movement clauses and decline those clauses.
There’s no doubt the Avalanche has a plan, and re-signing Landeskog and Makar shouldn’t be that difficult. But the better Grubauer performs the rest of this season, the tougher it will be for the Avs to sign him. Footnotes. The Avalanche, which defeated Vegas 5-1 on Thursday night to tie the Golden Knights with a West Divisionleading 45 points, had an optional practice Friday before Saturday’s 1 p.m. rematch with the Golden Knights at Ball Arena. … Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Calvert is now week to week with another undisclosed injury. Calvert was scratched Thursday to begin his third injury stint; he has now missed 14 games this season. to waive