It appears that Tristan Jarry won’t be able to return after the All-Star break as the Penguins announced that they’ve recalled goaltender Dustin Tokarski from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on an emergency basis. He had been sent down late last month when Pittsburgh hit their bye week.
The 33-year-old has made two appearances with Pittsburgh this season, posting a 2.67 GAA and a .915 SV%. While it’s a small sample size, both marks are better than his career averages of 3.12 and .902 respectively in 78 appearances over nine seasons. Tokarski has spent the bulk of the campaign in the AHL and has done well with a 2.31 GAA and a .920 SV% in 21 games, numbers that put him in the top eight in both categories.
The Penguins were hoping that Jarry would be able to return from the upper-body injury that has kept him out for the last couple of weeks but that’s unlikely to be the case now. Instead, it will continue to be Casey DeSmith’s net for the time being as he tries to keep them in the playoff mix. At the moment, Pittsburgh holds a one-point lead on Buffalo for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Their schedule resumes on Tuesday with a matchup against Colorado.
Every game Jarry misses helps drive down the price of his next contract. Unfortunately it also drives down the Pens chances of making the playoffs.
I would move on from him. Trade for a goalie in the offseason. Jarry is injury prone.
So, get rid of Jarry for Player X, then?
What upgrade are they trading for?