Does Gabriel Landeskog’s deal mark the end of Philipp Grubauer with the Avalanche?

After coming to terms with Gabriel Landeskog, did the Colorado Avalanche mark the departure of Philipp Grubauer in free agency?

After some reports negotiations weren’t going well, the Colorado Avalanche has agreed to terms with free agent (and long-time captain) Gabriel Landeskog on an eight-year deal with a $7 million AAV. Bringing Landeskog back was always the most likely outcome, despite some brief speculation he could land with the expansion Seattle Kraken.

But in any salary cap league, giving a big contract to a free agent you want to keep often means making a tough decision to let someone else go. For the Avalanche, that someone looks like goaltender Philipp Grubauer.

In a mailbag column, Mike Chambers of The Denver Post addressed a question about Grubauer in the wake of the Landeskog deal.

"It appears that he wants $6 million or more annually and the Avs don’t have the money. They already have two $9 million guys and Nathan MacKinnon is two years away from that. Good chance Grubauer signs elsewhere — particularly since the Avs came to terms with Gabe Landeskog."

Phillip Grubauer will be a coveted free agent

Grubauer is coming of an excellent 2020-21 season. He went 30-9-1 (seven shutouts) with a 1.95 goals-against average with a .922 save percentage on his way to being one of the finalists for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender.

The Avalanche have already given big multi-year contracts to Landeskog and young defenseman Cale Makar this offseason, which leaves them unable to pay Grubauer what his market value is. He said he wanted to return to Colorado earlier this month, but he’d be taking quite a discount to stay at this point.

Pierre Lebrun of The Athletic has mentioned the Toronto Maple Leafs as a suitor for Grubauer. There are certainly others, with the Avalanche all but removed from the list now.