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Chris Driedger

Kraken Place Philipp Grubauer On Injured Reserve

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The Kraken placed goaltender Philipp Grubauer on injured reserve Sunday, per a team announcement. Grubauer left last night’s overtime loss against the Lightning with a lower-body injury and did not return. In a corresponding transaction, netminder Chris Driedger was recalled from AHL Coachella Valley and defenseman Jaycob Megna was reinstated to the active roster from his conditioning stint.

Grubauer exited the contest late in the second period, suffering a likely groin injury as he slid across his crease to stop a shot from Lightning center Anthony Cirelli. He skated off the ice under his own power but needed assistance getting up. Backup netminder Joey Daccord entered the contest in relief.

This is not Grubauer’s first run-in with lower-body issues. He missed a combined 24 regular-season and playoff games in the 2019-20 campaign with lower-body injuries as a member of the Avalanche.

Outside of a strong postseason showing last year, Grubauer’s stint in Seattle has been below expectations. After providing solid backup play to Capitals starter Braden Holtby in the mid-2010s and then taking over as the starter for Colorado, Grubauer hit unrestricted free agency in 2021 and cashed in with the Kraken, signing a six-year, $35.4MM deal with trade protection to serve as the team’s starting netminder for the first era of their franchise.

His platform stats entering Seattle were strong. Coming off a 2020-21 campaign that saw him finish third in Vezina Trophy voting and boasting a .920 SV% in 214 career appearances, there was little reason to expect the contract to quickly turn into one of the worst values in the league. Unfortunately, since joining Seattle, Grubauer has been well below average, posting a 40-54-10 record, .890 SV% and 3.07 GAA behind a decent defense. The 32-year-old did post a .903 SV% in 14 games for the Kraken during last season’s run to Game 7 of the Second Round against the Stars, but even that fell well below the playoff stats he had set with the Avalanche over the preceding few years.

Kraken fans hoped that his postseason momentum could carry over into this season, especially with GM Ron Francis opting to stay the course in the crease and bring back Daccord as an internal option to serve as Grubauer’s full-time backup. Unfortunately, Grubauer has responded with his worst numbers yet, conceding 8.4 goals above average in just 17 starts, posting a .884 SV% and a 5-9-1 record in the process. Daccord hasn’t been much better, posting a 3-4-6 record and .894 SV%.

It will be Daccord’s crease for the time being with Grubauer sidelined, though. Without any clarity into the severity of Grubauer’s injury, it’s impossible to predict how long he could be out of the lineup – low-grade groin strains can be treated on a day-to-day basis, while a more severe groin injury would keep him out for months. He’ll miss at least seven days in order to be eligible for IR.

Driedger, who’s also disappointed since signing a three-year, $10.5MM pact with the Kraken in 2021, returns to the NHL roster and will look to make his season debut in the process. The 29-year-old missed most of last season after undergoing ACL surgery and was assigned to the minors upon his return to health, meaning he hasn’t appeared in an NHL contest since May 1, 2022. He started 24 games for the Kraken in their inaugural season, posting a 9-14-1 record, .899 SV% and 2.96 GAA.

Daccord beat out a healthy Driedger for the backup spot in training camp this year, leading Seattle to waive Driedger and assign him to Coachella Valley a few days before the start of the season. The Kraken recalled Driedger for a brief period in November while Grubauer was dealing with an undisclosed injury, but he did not play and was promptly returned to the AHL upon Grubauer’s return.

If Daccord continues to stumble after a hot start to the season, the Kraken hope Driedger’s strong play in the minors this year can again translate to NHL success. In 15 games for Coachella Valley, Driedger has a 2.20 GAA, .916 SV%, 9-5-1 record, and two shutouts.

Megna returns to Seattle after logging a goal and a +3 rating in two contests with Coachella Valley over the weekend. The Kraken assigned him to the minors on a conditioning loan last week after making him a healthy scratch in a remarkable 26 straight games to kick off the season.

Seattle Kraken Assign Chris Driedger To AHL

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Saturday: The Kraken announced that Driedger has been sent back to the Firebirds, suggesting that Grubauer will be able to suit up for Seattle’s next game against Chicago on Tuesday.

Tuesday: The Seattle Kraken have announced that they’ve recalled veteran goaltender Chris Driedger from their AHL affiliate the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The 29-year-old is likely to serve as the backup to Joey Daccord as starter Philipp Grubauer is dealing with an undisclosed injury and is likely to miss tomorrow night’s game. No word on whether Grubauer will be out longer term.

Driedger spent all last season in the AHL and to this point has yet to dress in an NHL game since the 2021-22 season. He was just okay in the AHL last season but has put up solid numbers with the Firebirds this season going 6-4 with a .915 save percentage and a 2.20 goals-against average.

Driedger was drafted by the Kraken in the 2021 NHL expansion draft and signed to a three-year $10.5MM contract despite having just 38 games of NHL experience at the time. The gamble did not pay off for Seattle as Driedger struggled in his first season with the club going 9-14-1 with a .899 save percentage and a 2.96 goals-against average.

Driedger’s struggles prompted the Kraken to shop the Winnipeg, Manitoba native this past summer, but they were unable to find any takers for his $3.5MM cap hit. It appeared possible that the Kraken would buy out Driedger, but they ended up hanging onto to him to play out the final season of his three-year deal.

A journeyman goaltender, Driedger did see some success at the NHL level from 2019-2021 as a member of the Florida Panthers. During that time Driedger went 21-8-4 while sporting 2.07 goals against average and a .931 save percentage. If Driedger does get a chance to play and can show that he belongs in the NHL it could open up the possibility that he gets moved as a few teams are looking at goaltending options in what is currently a very overpriced goalie market.

Waivers: 10/7/23

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The final day of the preseason is today so pretty soon, teams will be finalizing their season-opening rosters which means there will be plenty of players on waivers this weekend.  Here is today’s group, via TSN’s Chris Johnston (Twitter link).

Boston Bruins

F Jesper Boqvist
F Oskar Steen
D Jakub Zboril

Buffalo Sabres

F Brandon Biro
D Kale Clague
D Riley Stillman

Colorado Avalanche

D Jack Ahcan
D Brad Hunt

Columbus Blue Jackets

F Trey Fix-Wolansky

Edmonton Oilers

D Cam Dineen
D Philip Kemp
F Brad Malone
G Calvin Pickard

Los Angeles Kings

F Tyler Madden

Nashville Predators

F Denis Gurianov
F Jachym Kondelik (unconditional for the purposes of release, per CapFriendly)

New Jersey Devils

F Shane Bowers
F Justin Dowling
F Tyce Thompson
F Maxwell Willman

Seattle Kraken

G Chris Driedger
D Cale Fleury
F John Hayden

As expected at this point in training camp, the majority of these players have some form of NHL experience.

Boston’s trio is certainly intriguing.  Boqvist is coming off a 21-point season (10 goals, 11 assists) with the Devils but was non-tendered this summer due to arbitration eligibility, resulting in him signing a one-year deal for the minimum with the Bruins.  Still just 24, a rebuilding team might be inclined to give him a shot.  Steen played in 20 games with Boston back in 2021-22 and looked like a potential fourth-line center of the future at the time.  He cleared waivers last season but teams looking for depth down in the middle could consider him.  As for Zboril, he was limited to just 22 games last season but has 76 appearances at the top level under his belt.  A first-round pick back in 2015 (13th overall), he has a bit of a higher cap hit ($1.1375MM) which could scare teams off but he could be a fit on the third pairing of some rebuilding squads.

Among the other forwards on the wire today, Gurianov stands out.  He put up 20 goals with Dallas back in 2019-20, following that up with 30 points in just 55 games one year later.  However, he has struggled considerably since then and notched just seven goals between Dallas and Montreal last season.  Still, with an $800K price tag, he’s a player who could be claimed.  Madden was viewed as a quality prospect not long ago but has yet to see NHL action.  However, he’s only 23 and is signed for the minimum this season which makes him a possible claim candidate as well.

On the back end, Fleury was up with Seattle all of last season but was limited to just a dozen games.  He impressed in 2021-22 while playing with AHL Charlotte and as a right-shot defender – the side that many teams covet – he could garner some consideration.  Stillman was acquired from Vancouver last season and played in 50 games between the two teams, albeit in a number six role.  While he has a fair bit of experience (158 games in total), his contract could hurt his chances of being claimed as a $1.35MM price is more than a lot of teams can afford.

In goal, Driedger is the headliner here but at $3.5MM, there’s very little chance he’ll be picked up.  He missed most of last season due to an injury sustained at the 2022 Worlds.  Pickard didn’t see any NHL action last season for the first time since 2013-14.  The 31-year-old put up a 2.70 GAA with a .912 SV% in Bakersfield last season and has 116 NHL games under his belt.  Notably, he’s signed for the minimum which gives him a small chance of being picked up at least.

These players will be on waivers until 1 PM CT on Sunday.  Meanwhile, Sunday will be the last day for teams to place players on waivers and have them clear prior to Monday’s season-opening roster submission so expect plenty of waiver activity tomorrow.

More to follow.

Pacific Notes: Karlsson, Kraken, Oilers

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Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson has made it known he’d like to move to a team that has an eye on winning now.  But with four years left on his contract at a cap hit of $11.5MM, a trade is proving to be difficult to do.  In his latest piece for NBC Sports Bay Area, Sheng Peng examines another possibility for both sides, a mutual contract termination.  He’d be walking away from the remaining $39MM in salary but coming off a Norris Trophy-winning season, it stands to reason he could get a big chunk of that back over the next several seasons with a team that’s more of his choosing.  On the flip side, the Sharks wouldn’t get anything in return but would save a significant amount of cash that they’d otherwise be retaining to help facilitate a move.  It’s not the likeliest of options at this point but if a viable trade fails to materialize, perhaps it’s an option that is considered at some point.

More from the Pacific:

  • Seattle is one of the teams where the backup goalie is not yet set in stone for next season with veteran Chris Driedger set to battle the recently re-signed Joey Daccord for the spot. Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times suggests that the Kraken would be better off with Daccord in the second-string position from an organizational depth perspective since there’s much less of a risk of Driedger and his $3.5MM AAV being claimed than it is for Daccord and his $1.2MM price tag.  Daccord was the better of the two goalies with AHL Coachella Valley last season but Driedger’s NHL career numbers (2.45 GAA, .917 SV% in 65 games) are certainly better than Daccord’s (3.64 GAA, .884 SV% in 19 appearances).
  • Even with the salary cap expected to rise faster starting in 2024-25, it will certainly be difficult for the Oilers to keep both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in the fold. Postmedia’s David Staples posits that both middlemen – who could conceivably command the maximum 20% of the cap on their next contracts if they looked to get top dollar – might have to settle for something in the 14% range which, depending on how much the cap moves, could put their contracts both in the $12.5MM territory which is what McDavid is currently making.  Can a team with two deals at that price point still have enough depth to seriously contend?  That’s a question Edmonton certainly hopes they’ll have a chance to answer.  Draisaitl is signed for two more years while McDavid is under contract for three more seasons.

Kraken Unable To Buy Out Chris Driedger In Post-Arbitration Window

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One of the oft-overlooked benefits of heading to arbitration with a player is some potential additional salary cap flexibility in the form of a second buyout. It’s a window granted to teams for a 48-hour period beginning three days after they settle their last arbitration case. The Seattle Kraken did so with defenseman Vince Dunn today, inking him to a rather significant four-year, $29.4MM pact.

A rather obvious candidate for a buyout on the Kraken is netminder Chris Driedger, who the team was aggressively trying to shop earlier this summer. He missed most of the season with injury and couldn’t work his way back into the Kraken lineup when healthy, instead playing 14 games for the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds and slipping to fourth on the team’s goalie depth chart. He didn’t see a single second of action in the Firebirds’ run to Game 7 of the Calder Cup Final in their first season.

He’s third now with the departure of Martin Jones in free agency, but his $3.5MM cap hit is incredibly steep for a third-string netminder. However, Seattle will not be able to use a buyout on Driedger – players bought out during the conditional second window must have a cap hit of at least $4MM (and have been on the team’s reserve list at the prior season’s trade deadline).

It leaves Seattle with no other likely buyout options in the second window, so don’t expect them to take advantage of that early next week. The Kraken are now within $2MM of the salary cap’s $83.5MM Upper Limit after signing Dunn, a testament to the team’s quick rise to relevance with a payroll that reflects it.

The team will likely continue its attempts to move Driedger as the season draws nigh, as even getting rid of him at 50% salary retention is preferable to burying him in the minors, which would only bring his cap hit down to $2.35MM.

Philadelphia is the only team to utilize its post-arbitration buyout window this offseason, parting ways with defenseman Tony DeAngelo and the final season of a two-year, $10MM contract last week.

Kraken Looking To Move Chris Driedger

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Add another netminder to a trade market for goalies that started out thin but has seen several players added to it in recent weeks.  This time, it’s Kraken goaltender Chris Driedger being made available as Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (video link) that Seattle is looking to move the veteran.

It has certainly been an eventful few years for the 29-year-old.  A journeyman for the bulk of his career, Driedger had a stellar showing as the backup in Florida in 2020-21, posting a 2.06 GAA and a .927 SV% in 23 games, setting him up nicely for unrestricted free agency.  However, Seattle opted to make him their selection in expansion, signing him to a three-year, $10.5MM contract, quite a price tag for someone that never had a seven-figure AAV before.

Driedger wasn’t able to repeat that level of success in Seattle’s first season, putting up a 2.96 GAA with a .899 SV% in 27 games but still earned himself an invitation to play for Canada at the World Championship that spring.  Unfortunately, he tore his ACL in the tournament, causing him to miss the first half of the season.

With the Kraken bringing in Martin Jones as Driedger’s replacement this season, they quickly waived Driedger when he was cleared to return, sending him to AHL Coachella Valley.  Driedger had a decent showing during the regular season with them, compiling a 2.61 GAA with a .908 SV% in 14 games.  However, he hasn’t seen a second of ice time during the Firebirds’ run to the Calder Cup Finals with Joey Daccord, a pending UFA, seeing all the action.

Driedger has one year left on his contract with a $3.5MM price tag that is on the high side with how things have gone for him over the last two seasons.  Notably, his salary jumps to $4.5MM with the deal being a back-loaded one.  Seattle would certainly like to free up some extra cap flexibility this summer and moving him would be one way to accomplish that.  However, given the number of teams needing to open up cap space, clearing his contract outright could be a challenge.

If Seattle is willing to move on from Driedger, one other option over the next couple of weeks could be a buyout.  Doing that would drop his cap charge to just $500K for next season but would add $1.5MM in dead cap space for 2024-25.  Alternatively, taking a contract back in the swap to help balance the money could help facilitate a move.  Either way, the fact they’re in this situation isn’t ideal, especially when it looked like Driedger’s career was on the rise just a couple of years ago.  Now, they just have to hope that another team thinks he’ll be able to recover his form from his final season in Florida.

Evening Notes: Driedger, Kartye, Foegele

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After being knocked out of the NHL playoffs by the Dallas Stars the Seattle Kraken have sent goaltender Chris Driedger to the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL. The 28-year-old netminder was assigned to Seattle’s AHL affiliate on an emergency loan leading to speculation for the reason behind the loan. Seattle could be making the move as an insurance policy as the Firebirds just won a marathon triple OT thriller against the Calgary Wranglers that has the Flames AHL affiliate on the ropes trailing 2-1. Driedger is familiar with Coachella Valley having dressed in 14 games for the club going 9-4 with a .908 save percentage and 2.61 goals against average.

Driedger didn’t see any action with Seattle this year after struggling in 2021-22, he was unseated from his position as the backup after the club signed veteran Martin Jones. The Winnipeg native has one more year left on his three-year contract that carries a cap hit of $3.5MM and could very well be bought out this summer to free up cap space. Driedger was terrific in his two seasons in Florida but has struggled for the Kraken since coming over in the expansion draft and signing his deal.

In other evening news:

  • Forward Tye Kartye has also been sent down to Coachella Valley by the Seattle Kraken. The 22-year-old had an eventful first season in professional hockey after spending his entire OHL career with the Soo Greyhounds. Kartye had a terrific year in the AHL putting up 28 goals and 29 assists in 72 regular season games and then joined the Kraken for their playoff run where he became a dependable depth scoring option as he put up five points in ten playoff games.
  • TSN 1260’s Jason Gregor tweeted today that Edmonton Oilers Warren Foegele played through an apparent wrist injury since February. Gregor goes on to say that it limited the forwards mobility and impacted his shooting. Foegele struggled early in the playoffs but was one of the best Oilers forwards in the series against the Vegas Golden Knights as he had two goals in Edmonton’s six game series loss. The former Carolina Hurricane had an MRI today and it will determined in the coming days whether surgery will be required.

NHL Announces 2023 King Clancy Memorial Trophy Nominees

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In an announcement made Tuesday afternoon, the NHL unveiled the list of nominees for the 2023 King Clancy Memorial Trophy. The award is presented annually to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities both on and off the ice, as well as making a noteworthy humanitarian contribution to their community.

The list of nominees for this year’s award is an impressive one, featuring some of the league’s most well-respected captains, such as Boston’s Patrice Bergeron and Florida’s Aleksander Barkov.

One notable nominee is one of the youngest captains in the league – Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk. Tkachuk, in a few short years as a Senator, has already implanted himself in the community, especially in recent seasons. Working with the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, Tkachuk hosts the ’Tkachuk’s Captains’ program, which works with kids at club locations across Ottawa to help develop leadership skills.

That’s not to diminish the off-ice efforts of anyone else named on the full list of nominees, found below. While an often-overlooked award, it’s a great way to highlight some players who focus on making positive contributions to their communities.

Anaheim: Kevin Shattenkirk
Arizona: Travis Boyd
Boston: Patrice Bergeron
Buffalo: Alex Tuch
Calgary: Mikael Backlund
Carolina: Jordan Staal
Chicago: Connor Murphy
Colorado: Devon Toews
Columbus: Zach Werenski
Dallas: Jason Robertson
Detroit: Dylan Larkin
Edmonton: Darnell Nurse
Florida: Aleksander Barkov
Los Angeles: Mikey Anderson
Minnesota: Matt Dumba
Montreal: Jordan Harris
Nashville: Juuse Saros
New Jersey: Jack Hughes
NY Islanders: Anders Lee
NY Rangers: Jacob Trouba
Ottawa: Brady Tkachuk
Philadelphia: Scott Laughton
Pittsburgh: Evgeni Malkin
San Jose: Luke Kunin
Seattle: Chris Driedger
St. Louis: Brayden Schenn
Tampa Bay: Victor Hedman
Toronto: Morgan Rielly
Vancouver: Elias Pettersson
Vegas: Reilly Smith
Washington: Tom Wilson
Winnipeg: Blake Wheeler

Seattle Kraken Sign Goaltender Niklas Kokko To ELC

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The Seattle Kraken have announced that they have signed goaltender Niklas Kokko to a three year entry-level contract. Kokko was on the roster of Finland’s 2023 IIHF World Junior team but did not see any game action.

The 19-year-old spent the bulk of this past season with Hermes of the Mestis league where he put up fairly pedestrian numbers. Kokko had a 4-6-4 record with a .901 save percentage and a 2.95 goals-against average. Although Kokko didn’t see any game action in the recent World Juniors tournament he did backstop Finland’s U18 squad to a bronze medal at the 2022 U18 IIHF World Juniors.

Kokko was Seattle’s second round pick in the 2022 NHL entry draft and has good size for a young goaltender standing 6’3” tall and weighing around 185 pounds. He will likely fill out a bit more as he gets older, which should help him improve on his numbers. Given what Seattle is doing they must be happy with his development thus far.

It will be interesting to see where Kokko fits into Seattle’s plans. He is a long way from the NHL, but Seattle will be looking to develop him over the next few years to likely be the heir apparent to Philipp Grubauer. Grubauer is signed for another four seasons while Chris Driedger is signed for just one more. The Kraken still have Joey Daccord in the AHL but may let him walk when he becomes a restricted free agent this summer. The only other goaltender of note in the Kraken system is Ales Stezka. He continues to play in Czechia and at the age of 26 it appears that he will likely not be an NHL option for Seattle. With Grubauer signed long term it appears as though Kokko will have ample time to develop in Seattle’s system and could have a golden opportunity in the very near future.

Chris Driedger Clears Waivers

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February 24: Driedger has cleared waivers, per NorthStar Bets’ Chris Johnston.

February 23: The Seattle Kraken have placed goaltender Chris Driedger on waivers, which could indicate he’s ready to return from the offseason surgery that has kept him out of game action all season. With two NHL goaltenders already in place, the Kraken will likely send Driedger to the minor leagues if he clears.

One of the original Kraken, selected in the 2021 expansion draft, Driedger, at that point, was coming off a breakout season with the Florida Panthers. After registering a .927 save percentage in 23 games with the Panthers, there was talk about Driedger all across the league as a potential available starter. The Kraken selected him and gave him a three-year, $10.5MM contract, only to sign Philipp Grubauer to a much bigger deal a few days later.

That made Driedger the backup by default, and things didn’t go well in his first year with Seattle. With an .899 save percentage in 27 appearances, he (along with Grubauer) was a big part of the team’s collapse in their first year.

After the season ended, Driedger went to play with Canada at the World Championships, where he suffered a serious knee injury. Surgery and a long rehab have followed, without any game action.

One interesting wrinkle in today’s waiver placement is that Driedger could have been loaned to the Coachella Valley Firebirds on a long-term injury conditioning stint, without worrying about waivers for the time being. By doing it this way, the team can not only keep him in the minor leagues for as long as they want, but also potentially entice another team to take him—and his $3.5MM cap hit—off their hands.

Driedger is signed through next season but it is hard to predict where his career will go from here. The Kraken still have Grubauer under contract long-term and probably don’t want to be rolling out that tandem again next season. It makes almost no sense for anyone to claim him, but if he does pass through, perhaps a team would be interested as a goaltender they can keep in the minor leagues.

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