Morning Flurries: Philipp Grubauer wants to return to the Avalanche

Colorado Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer enjoyed the MLB All-Star festivities over the last few days including participation in the Celebrity Softball Game. Grubauer took to the batting cages in preparation and then had a hit in the game with the bases loaded which resulted in three runs scored for his team.

Also of note while at the game Grubauer spoke to The Denver Post about his impending unrestricted free agent status. His quotes were pretty strong for someone who has their options open and expressed his great desire to return to Colorado and that he expects the Avalanche to have a great team and he “wants to be part of that”. As always money talks and we’ll see if the Avalanche meet his desires financially.

The Seattle Kraken expansion draft is now a week away and teams are making their moves in order to have their affairs are in order before protection lists are due on Saturday, July 17th. The Athletic reported yesterday that Erik Johnson was asked to waive his NMC and he already agreed, this helping the Avalanche out greatly in their ability to protect the defensive core of the team.

Elsewhere in the league, shocking news that the Minnesota Wild will buy out both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in a move to save $10 million in cap space in 2021-22 but give the team next to no savings the following three years and have dead money on the books for the next eight years. No doubt expansion played a part in the decision as the Wild were set to leave defenseman Matt Dumba unprotected if something didn’t chance with their mandatory protections.