There is another way. Bad goalie swap. Look for someone you think can bounce back in Seattle. The Kings waived Cal Peterson, he's got three years left after this one. And then Elvis Merzlikins, who like Gruby has four years left after this one. Elvis has been worse than Gruby this year but he's a good bit younger and might just need a change of scenery after the Kivlenieks tragedy.
The crazy thing though - I was checking capfriendly and they even gave Gruby a no trade clause. He might need an AHL bus trip to persuade him to accept a trade.
1) Grubauer's been better as of late, so I'd wait until at least the summer.
2) We still have Driedger as well and need prbably will have to make a decision there as well.
3) You've got to take a closer look at the contracts.
After the season it looks like this for goalies that might have their teams looking at something like this.
Grubauer --> 4 x $5.9M
Merzlikins --> 4 x $5.4M
Petersen --> 2 x $3.875M
Campbell --> 4 x $5.0M
Gibson --> 4 x $6.4M
Markström --> 3 x $6M
Bobrovsky --> 3 x $10M
So you see the Pacific Division totally sucks goaltending wise and even then it's tough.
The only one you could get close to just a "hockey trade" would be Merzlikins but the Jackets are around the cap and needed to give away Bjorkstrand last summer to make things work.
I doubt they'd have interest adding another $0.5M on a goalie with subpar numbers.
Campbell has the same years left, but makes $0.9M less and that would mean you'd have to give away something or take on another(not so good) contract from Edmonton.
Markstrom makes more but has one year less on his contract.
Bobrovsky as well, but you just can't add $4.1M extra to the current team for that time.
Gibson would be interesting but I doubt the Ducks care about paying $0.5M extra for their guy and he's got an NMC and has stated that he wants to stay.
Petersen won't happen at all given that he's only got two years left at about 65% of Grubauer's contract.
The Kings will also have Quick off their books or re-sign him on the cheap and will be looking for other options(maybe even Driedger) and not a guy like Grubauer.
Unless you're willing to part with a first to send him to Arizona(actually an underated goalie factory of the NHL) I don't think you'll see a trade of his.
So we better hope he plays more like the last games and at least gives you a chance cause I don't see a trade happening and buying him out won't be an option for the next three years either.