With Seattle only carrying six defensemen on their roster, it felt like some more roster moves were on the horizon. Those moves have now been made as CapFriendly reports (Twitter links) that goaltender Philipp Grubauer has been placed on LTIR. They become the 18th team in the league that is currently utilizing LTIR. Using the cap space created by that placement, defenseman Gustav Olofsson was recalled from Coachella Valley of the AHL.
Grubauer has been out for close to three weeks due to a lower-body injury sustained against Colorado last month. Prior to going down, he was off to a slow start to his season with a 3.77 GAA and a .860 SV%, numbers that were considerably worse than his totals from 2021-22 which were by far the worst of his career. Martin Jones has certainly stepped up in his absence as the Kraken have reeled off five straight victories heading into tonight’s contest against Minnesota. Magnus Hellberg was reacquired yesterday off waivers and will serve as their backup for the time being. It’s worth noting that Grubauer resumed skating earlier this week so even with this move, he’s likely not too far away from returning to the lineup; the minimum time he’ll have to miss is 10 games and 24 days from the original injury date, not today’s placement.
As for Olofsson, the 27-year-old is in his second season with Seattle and has yet to play for them in the NHL; his last action at the top level came with Montreal back in 2019-20 when he made three of his 59 career NHL appearances. This season, Olofsson has played in eight games with the Firebirds, picking up four assists. His addition to the roster puts the Kraken back at the maximum of 23 players.
Grubauer yikes.
They become the 18th team in the league that is currently utilizing LTIR.
Haven’t they been using it on Driedger already?
No. They could have, but did not need to. You don’t bank cap space if you are using LTIR. So if you are not at the cap you shouldn’t use it even if you can.