Frei Column: Philipp Grubauer Finding Life a Little Tougher in Seattle

As a young hockey player in his Bavarian hometown of Rosenheim, Germany, about 40 miles southeast of Munich, Philipp Grubauer was having something of an identity crisis.

“Until I was 14, I always switched back and forth between defenseman and goalie,” Grubauer told me early in his three-season Avalanche stay. “Not to toot my own horn, but I could skate well and shoot a little bit.”