Strong start for Caps G prospect Philipp Grubauer

“Once [the Caps] signed Tomas Vokoun it was pretty obvious South Carolina would be the best place for Philipp to start and get consistent playing time,” said Olie Kolzig, Washington’s associate goaltending coach.

Vokoun’s signing meant that Neuvirth had company in the NHL and that Braden Holtby would be the starter again at Hershey. No sense in making Grubauer the backup there and limiting his development time in net. But he’s making the most of his opportunity in Charleston – and enjoying one of North America’s great towns.

“It’s perfect here,” Grubauer said. “In junior I was always freezing. We always had a lot of snow up in Kingston and Belleville (Ontario), where I played. Now I walk out the door in shorts and flip-flops in the morning and it’s almost 80 Fahrenheit. That’s pretty nice.”

Grubauer was named the ECHL goalie of the week (Oct. 31-Nov. 6) last week after winning three games in a row with a shutout. He gave up three goals on 32 shots on Tuesday against Greenville, but the Caps like what they’ve seen so far. Grubauer is 6-1 with a .943 save percentage and a 1.61 goals-against average and Kolzig believes he could hold his own in the AHL right now. That save percentage tops the ECHL and the goals-against average ranks second. That has helped the Stingrays get off to an 8-5-1 start, good for second place in the South Division of the Eastern Conference.

Grubauer has a similar on-ice presence to Neuvirth – calm and collected. He’s more like a five-year veteran in his crease, according to Kolzig, than a goalie making his professional debut. There are things to work on, however. Washington goalie coach Dave Prior has been trying to get Grubauer to stay on his feet a little more. Patience is always an issue for young goalies. He also tends to swing his stick too much so being in better control there would help, especially at the higher levels.

“I’m just going to try to keep it up and work hard, play my game simple and don’t make any mistakes,” Grubauer said. “And really not let the game get in my head. Try to stay calm.”

The 6-foot-1, 184-pounder played junior hockey in Canada for three different teams over a three-year period before turning pro. But Kolzig actually thinks coming up through the German system has benefited Grubauer. The hockey played in that country – while less skilled overall – is far more physical than what a player would see in Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, Finland or the Czech Republic, making for a smoother adjustment to a North American-style pro league. Of course, in that respect the three years spent in junior were an even bigger help.

A fourth-round pick in 2010 – yet another player Prior scouted and liked better than the consensus heading into that draft year  – Grubauer is a native of Rosenheim, Germany, a town in southern Bavaria about 45 miles south of Munich. Grow up in that part of the world, only 20 minutes away from the Austrian border, and that means you ski in the winter – a lot. No different for Grubauer, who turns 20 on Nov. 25.

But Rosenheim also had a Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) franchise when Grubauer was growing up there and his parents would take him to games often. With most of his friends playing soccer, Grubauer wanted to try something different. He liked the local team and his dad had played the sport. But Grubauer’s pee-wee teams almost never had someone to play goalie. So he filled in whenever he had the opportunity and – like most kids – switched from forward to defense to goalie depending on the day. But as the years passed he found his time in goal usually came against the better teams. 

Now enjoying life in Charleston, Grubauer will pay for that good weather in spades with travel. No airplanes in the ECHL. South Carolina’s three division opponents – the teams it sees most often – are across the state in Greenville (3 ½ hours), in suburban Atlanta (5 ½ hours) and in Fort Myers, Fla. (9 hours). Again – those are the division games.  And the Stingrays get to every one of them by bus. To limit travel they’ll play two or even three games at one site. But that’s under ideal conditions. In early January, there’s actually a Wheeling, W.Va.-Elmira, N.Y.-Toledo, Ohio back-to-back-to-back set of games. That epic road trip continues with stops in Kalamazoo, Mich.,Trenton, N.J. and back to Elmira before finishing in Reading, Pa.

“It’s tough. But we got a pretty good bus – a sleeping bus,” Grubauer said. “That helps. But in junior we never had trips like this. Maybe two or three hours, that was it. It’s a pretty big change.”

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