Grubauer Stood Out In Kraken Tale Of Two Seasons

Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer admits he’ll need some time to process all that went on this past season.

But just days after being voted winner of the team’s Fan Favorite Award in a comeback season likely his finest in a Kraken uniform, the 34-year-old was talking about the importance of mindset, responding to adversity and taking care of business. One year after being relegated to the American Hockey League for a weekslong stretch, Grubauer ranked among the most consistently positive stories in 2025-26 for a Kraken team that otherwise failed to carry an overall strong performance into the final month’s stretch run of games.

“It was a different year for me personally last year,” Grubauer said Friday as Kraken players carried out exit interviews and locker cleanouts following Thursday’s season finale. “I’m not going to lie. It was probably one of the hardest ones in my career. Everybody’s different in how they respond to it when they go down or when they come back the next year. I think it’s part of being a professional…coming back up here and training hard in the summer.

“And basically, just leaving it all on the table and proving people wrong.”

Grubauer went from being rumored as a potential summer 2025 buyout candidate to posting a 2.65 goals against average and a .909 save percentage over 32 games, his best numbers in five years since playing for the Colorado Avalanche. His goals saved above expected, according to Evolving Hockey, was tops on the team and 21^st in the league at 21.76.

Capturing the Fan Favorite prize, awarded on the ice after the team’s home finale last Monday, was what Grubauer termed an “incredible” finish to a personal season that included playing for his native Germany at the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy back in February.

“It’s a great feeling,” he said. “Definitely a huge honor. Hopefully, next year we can get into the playoffs, and we can give something back to the fans.”

That unfinished last part, especially the team’s 7-17-2 post-Olympic stretch run, has dampened the season perspective both for Grubauer and players around him. They’re almost viewing the season in two parts: The better one where head coach Lane Lambert came in, imposed a culture of accountability and an ironclad defensive structure en route to a 27-20-9 record ahead of the break.

That had been good enough for third place in the Pacific Division, just a tick out of second and within reach of the top spot with several games in hand.

Until it wasn’t.

“It was very frustrating for all of us,” alternate captain Matty Beniers said. “We didn’t get to where we wanted to go.”

The rather bizarre Kraken season started with the summer’s prime trade acquisition, veteran forward Mason Marchment, getting dealt to Columbus in December after an ineffective opening two months in which he never appeared to fit with his new team. The Kraken wound up losing six straight and 10 of 11 by mid-December, then turned things around with a run of 8-0-2 that vaulted them into a playoff spot by January.

But things came apart right out of the post-break gate, with non-competitive losses in Dallas and St. Louis that left them teetering. Then, after a win over Vancouver and a potentially season-defining 2-1 win over Carolina at home, the Kraken lost again to St. Louis at Climate Pledge Arena and never really recovered.

They finished 34-37-11 with 79 points, only three better than last season despite more than 100 days holding down a playoff spot.

Beniers, 23, like Grubauer, ranked as one of the more positive Kraken stories this season, leading a pack of 25-and-younger players the squad hopes can form part of a core for years to come. He reached 20 goals for the second straight season, and his 50 points were his highest total since 57 notched his Calder Trophy Rookie of the Year campaign in 2022-23.

The difference was, this season was spent centering the team’s top line over a full 82 games. And all the added two-way responsibilities that come with it, something Beniers took very seriously in boosting some of his own credibility as a locker room leader.

“I think the way that I play the game, I’ll always lead by my play and lead on the ice by example,” he said. “I think I play an honest game. So, I think I’ll always have that.”

But Beniers also found he had “more to add, more to say” this season as he’d grown familiar with the team’s inner workings and needs.

“I think I was more vocal this year as a leader,” he said. “The older you get, you get a little bit more comfortable in those scenarios of talking in the room, talking to older guys as me being a younger guy.”

Kaapo Kakko, 25, also had a strong season on the wing once returning from a broken hand that sidelined him six weeks right out of training camp. He put up 40 points in just 65 games – the highest point-per-game total of his career.

Among more inexperienced youth, the season-long presence of center Berkly Catton, who turned 20 in January, provided invaluable experience the team hopes will translate into greater production moving forward. Fourth line winger Jacob Melanson, 22, promoted mid-season, also made a huge impression in his energetic tenacity and ability to jumpstart the team.

Ryan Winterton, 22, got into 68 games and seemed to continuously improve in sticking with the team all season, aside from taking time off to deal with the death of his brother from cancer.

Danish forward prospect Oscar Fisker Molgaard, 21, logged two assists in a surprising 13 games seemingly ahead of schedule.

But not all went well with younger players. Kraken forward Shane Wright, 22, saw his point totals decline in his second full season while defenseman Ryker Evans, 24, was inconsistent throughout. Jani Nyman broke camp with the team at age 21 but also struggled with consistency in separate NHL stints spanning 28 games.

And forward Tye Kartye, 24, a mainstay since joining the squad in the playoffs three years ago, was put on waivers and claimed by the New York Rangers.

Some struggles by younger players mirrored those of the broader team down the stretch.

“No one is unaware of what the last 20-something games was,” Beniers said. “Obviously, no one was happy with that at all. But I think that getting ourselves to that situation, putting ourselves in that situation, and failing, now we get another year to put ourselves in that situation and go at it again hopefully. And learn from it and get better.

“We have older guys and we have a lot of young guys. And that’s probably the first time those guys have been in that situation later in the year, and that type of hockey where it does get harder. It gets tighter. So, we’re going to learn from it and we’re going to be better next year.”

Kraken forward Jared McCann, who again reached the 20-goal mark in a season limited to just 52 games by nagging lower body injuries, said “disappointment” best sums up how the entire organization feels. McCann said he’s tried to be “a shoulder to lean on” for younger players joining the team, some of whom struggled with the heightened pace of their first playoff stretch run.

Responding to a question about the mutual parting of ways last week between the team and president Ron Francis, McCann was blunt.

“I think the younger guys need to take it more seriously when it comes to...” he said, pausing to find the right words before adding: “Things change if you don’t win.”

And indeed, the Kraken are promising changes. Not all the players leaving for the summer will be back next fall. The Kraken face decisions on unrestricted free agents such as Bobby McMann, Jaden Schwartz, Eeli Tolvanen and Janie Oleksiak. They’ve talked about being aggressive this summer, perhaps orchestrating trades that could involve other established players still under contract.

Kraken coach Lambert echoed McCann is saying “disappointment” was an appropriate word for how the season ended.

“But then I would also have to look at the season as a whole,” Lambert said. “And go back to what we talked to right at the very beginning about being in the mix, playing meaningful games. Which we were and we did. Which I think is going to be very important for the help and the growth of our younger guys. And getting that experience and being able to do that was very important for us.”

How they respond to the adversity of the past month-plus from here will be just as important.

Team captain Jordan Eberle, like Grubauer, used the summer as motivation for his own comeback season from a serious pelvic injury and surgery that sidelined him three months last season. His 26 goals this season were his most in 12 years, while his 55 points were his second-highest Kraken total in earning Pete Muldoon Award honors as team Most Valuable Player, and the Guyle Fielder Award for perseverance and dedication to hockey.

“You’re excited before the break and you see the potential with where we were at and the way the team was playing,” Eberle said. “And you kind of dangle that carrot and you at the end of the day don’t get the job done coming down the stretch.

“For me, that makes it much harder. That we showed that we could do it for 75% of the year. And then when things got hard and things tightened up because of the league, because teams are desperate to make it, we failed. And that for me makes it that much more disappointing. I think out of that, you can take the positive that we’ve shown we can do it. And the next step is trying to figure out how to get over that hurdle.”

As Grubauer mentioned, players all have ways of channeling inner turmoil differently. Not all wind up with Grubauer’s turnaround results. But the team would certainly like to see them try.

Grubauer knows he has a way to go before completely processing everything good and bad that happened to both himself, and the team in general.

“Hopefully, I can sit there and say that I’m proud of myself,” Grubauer said. “I’m not satisfied. That’s why we want to win and play hockey. There’s always improvement to be made somewhere. You always want to improve and get better.”