The Pittsburgh Penguins are bringing a solid goaltending prospect to North America as the team announced they have signed goalie Sergei Murashov to a three-year, entry-level contract. Murashov should compete with Penguins’ prospect Taylor Gauthier for the backup minutes with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins with the loser of that battle earning the starter’s role with the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL.
It is Joel Blomqvist’s net to lose with the AHL Penguins but Marashov should be biting at his ankles relatively quickly. No matter how this situation plays out — Pittsburgh is quickly building one of the better goaltending pipelines in the league.
The Penguins selected Murashov with the 118th overall selection in the 2022 NHL Draft after a promising season with Loko-76 Yaroslavl of the MHL. In his draft year, Murashov played in 41 games for Yaroslavl and recorded a 21-16-3 record with a .927 save percentage and 2.49 goals against average. Hoping to keep his confidence up by playing in his birth city, the Penguins have left Murashov to develop in Russia for the last two years.
Murashov has continued his development with Loko Yaroslavl of the MHL over the last two years and had brief playing time with their KHL affiliate, the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Playing on one of the most successful organizations in Russia’s major feeder league, Murashov produced a 24-7-5 record in 37 games during the 2022-23 season with a .948 SV% and 1.53 GAA. Murashov carried a .932 SV% in that year’s playoffs before losing in the semi-finals.
The 2023-24 season became his most dominant as Murashov collected 24 wins in 34 games with a .930 SV%. In the playoffs, the young Russian netminder earned a .926 SV% and 2.07 GAA en route to his team becoming champions at the end of the season.
Murashov is still young for a goaltending prospect at only 20 years old, so he may end up starting the year in Wheeling just for development’s sake. However, if he continues his upward trajectory there should be no question Murashov will be competing for a full-time job in the AHL soon.
Find anyone to take Jarry’s contract and dump him. Or wait until the deadline and hope his play has rebounded a bit.
It’s not that simple. They tried to trade him. No one wanted the contract. Also, they have good prospects, but none of them are ready to just step in at the NHL.
“No matter how this situation plays out — Pittsburgh is quickly building one of the better goaltending pipelines in the league.”
And we should just keep it going. The best NHL orgs tend to be the ones who have a constant stream of quality goalies. Just keep them churning.
Wow, this is a little surprising. I thought he’d stay in Russia for one more season. With Blomqvist, Murashov, and Gauthier, the Penguins probably have the best young goalie depth in the NHL. Odds would say at least one of them end up a quality starter (probably in the order I listed).
Looks like it’s only one more season for Jarry in a Penguins uniform. If history repeats itself he probably performs like a top 12 goalie or so and bounces back. Penguins shouldn’t have trouble finding a trade partner next offseason (or possibly at the deadline). Glad they signed Ned to the two-year deal to allow Gauthier and Murashov to develop and not be rushed.