The only filter i could find inside the wp_get_archives function is for displaying the links. Based on the get_archives_link filter, this should work, use it in your functions.php file:
$archive_year = 0;
add_filter('get_archives_link','wp_get_archive_grouped_by_year',10,2);
function wp_get_archive_grouped_by_year($link_html) {
global $archive_year;
//Get the year from the link(probably better if you change this to regexp)
$year_new = explode(' ', $link_html);
$year_new = explode('</a>',$year_new[2]);
$year_new = $year_new[0];
$year_html="";
//If the year is not display previously
if ($year_new != $archive_year) {
$archive_year = $year_new;
$year_html="<li class="year">".$archive_year.'</li>';
}
//Remove the year from the month link
$link_html = str_replace(' '.$archive_year, "", $link_html);
//Return the new links and exclude a specific year:
if($archive_year != '2014') {
echo $year_html.$link_html;
}
}
Results:
<li class="year">2014</li>
<li><a href="#">January</a></li>
<li class="year">2013</li>
<li><a href="#">November</a></li>
<li><a href="#">April</a></li>