Philipp Grubauer

BIOGRAPHY

Philipp Grubauer was born November 21, 1991, in Rosenheim, Germany. He is a goaltender in the NHL.

In the 2012–13 season, the Washington Capitals' ECHL affiliation became the Reading Royals, and Grubauer split the season between Reading and Hershey, moving up to Hershey when the NHL ended their labour lockout and when goaltender Braden Holtby was promoted to Washington full-time for the 2012–13 season. Grubauer made his NHL debut in relief of Braden Holtby in a 4–1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on 27 February 2013, stopping all 14 shots faced in just over 25 minutes of play. Grubauer then made his first NHL start on 9 March 2013, in a 5–2 loss to the New York Islanders. He faced 45 shots in the game, stopping 40.

On 6 July 2017, the Capitals re-signed Grubauer to a one-year, $1.5 million contract. During the 2017–18 season, Grubauer recorded a career-high 15 wins in 28 starts. Grubauer was the Capitals' starter to begin the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs after a strong (7–3–0) record in 10 of the final 16 games in the Capitals' regular season. Grubauer made 23 saves in a 4–3 overtime loss in Game One against the Columbus Blue Jackets. However, Holtby permanently took over the goaltending duties from Grubauer after replacing him during Game 2 of the series. The Capitals ended up winning the Stanley Cup after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.

On 22 June 2018, Grubauer and Brooks Orpik were traded to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a 2018 second-round pick during the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. The following day, the Avalanche re-signed Grubauer to a three-year, $10 million contract extension.

He recorded an 18–9–5 record during the regular season, but a second-half surge led Grubauer to be named Colorado's starting goaltender for the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. He helped lead the Avalanche to a first-round upset over the first-place Calgary Flames, but lost in Round 2 to the San Jose Sharks in seven games. Grubauer recorded a 7–5 record with a 2.30 goals against average during the playoffs.

During the 2019 offseason, goaltender Semyon Varlamov signed a free-agent deal with the New York Islanders, cementing Grubauer's place as Colorado's starter. However injuries would again hamper his 2019–20 season and ended up splitting time with Pavel Francouz. He made 36 starts in the regular season and went 5–1 with a 1.87 goals against average in seven playoff starts before suffering an injury in the Conference Semi-finals.

Grubauer bounced back from his playoff injury and had the best season of his career during the shortened 2020–21 NHL season. With accomplished backup Pavel Francouz injured the entire season, Grubauer had a heavy workload and started 39 of 56 contests. He finished the regular season with a record of 30–9–1, a goals against average of 1.95, a save percentage of .922, and 7 shutouts despite missing 2 weeks in April with a COVID-19 diagnosis. His win total was second only to Andrei Vasilevskiy (31) and his goals against average was second only to Alex Nedeljkovic (1.90), who played in 17 fewer games than Grubauer. Grubauer's save percentage was good for ninth on the season and he tied for the league lead in shutouts with Semyon Varlamov. On 10 May 2021, with his team needing a regulation win in order to prevent the Vegas Golden Knights from winning both the division and the Presidents' Trophy, Grubauer stopped 36 of 37 shots in a 2–1 victory. The Avalanche would go on to win their division and the Presidents Trophy for the third time in franchise history three days later after defeating the Los Angeles Kings 5–1 at Ball Arena in the 56th and final game of the regular season. On 1 June 2021, Grubauer was named a Vezina finalist for the first time in his career along with Marc-André Fleury and Andrei Vasilevskiy. 

Grubauer continued his stellar play in the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs as the Avalanche swept the St. Louis Blues in the West Division First Round and took the first two games of the West Division Second Round series from the Golden Knights. After defeating the Knights 3–2 in overtime in the second game and making a postseason career-high 39 saves, Grubauer became only the 10th goaltender in NHL history to record 10 or more consecutive victories in the postseason, joining elite company. He also broke famed Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy's longstanding franchise record for a postseason win streak by attaining his sixth straight win. Roy had previously held the record with five straight wins which he set three separate times.

On 28 July 2021, as a free agent and unable to come to terms with the Avalanche, Grubauer opted to sign a six-year, $35.4 million contract to join the expansion club Seattle Kraken. He became the first Seattle Kraken goaltender to record a shutout on February 2, 2022, defeating the New York Islanders 3–0.