Despite a difficult season that included two demotions to the AHL, Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry has done enough to retain the starting job heading into next year, Seth Rorabaugh of triblive.com believes.
As Rorabaugh notes, the 30-year-old Jarry posted less-than-stellar numbers on the season but showed improvement after returning from being waived and then demoted to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. All told, Jarry appeared in 36 NHL games, with a 16-12-6 record, 3.12 goals against average, and .893 save percentage. However, in his final 14 games, Jarry had an 8-4-2 record, .904 save percentage, and two shutouts. It’s also important to note that much of the criticism surrounding the Penguins has focused on their defensive play in front of their goaltenders, including the play of big contract players like Erik Karlsson and Ryan Graves.
Still, Jarry’s performance over the past few seasons has been deeply disappointing for a Penguins team caught between trying to stay competitive and facing the growing need to begin a rebuild. His late-season improvements were likely enough to justify keeping him as the starter next season, but not enough for GM Kyle Dubas to generate trade interest from teams in need of goaltending who believe that Jarry is back to his all-star form.
And as Rorabaugh points out, Dubas indicated in his year-end press conference that he expects Jarry to be in an open competition with the club’s other goaltenders coming into training camp, making a potential buyout sound unlikely. Also under contract is Alex Nedeljkovic, whom the team views as a reliable NHL backup, but not a viable starting option. Like Jarry, Nedeljkovic struggled last season behind an inconsistent defense, finishing with a 14-15-5 record and a .894 save percentage.
The Penguins’ system is stocked with polished prospects, but it remains unclear whether any have the experience to handle a significant NHL workload. That group includes Sergei Murashov, who performed well in both the ECHL and AHL this past season, though it was his first year playing in North America. Joel Blomqvist also impressed at the AHL level but struggled during his first taste of NHL action. Murashov, 21, the Penguins’ fourth-round selection in the 2022 draft, posted a .913 save percentage in 16 games in the AHL after posting even better numbers in the ECHL. He also broke a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins record by winning his first 10 games. While his continued development is something to closely monitor, the Russian is unlikely to push Jarry or Nedeljkovic for playing time to start the season.
All things considered, Jarry appears to have a path to retaining the starting job next season, even if it may not be the team’s ideal scenario.
Jarry is terrible. Let’s shots in early I. The game all the time. Need to get rid of him or eat the salary
Let’s be realistic here. Jarry is very inconsistent and shouldn’t be their starter, but they don’t really have a choice and it shouldn’t matter anyway. No one is trading for him and we shouldn’t be giving up assets to move him. There also aren’t any quality goal tenders available on the free agent market. Trading for one would be a kings ransom and we have a possible starter in murashov that isn’t quite ready yet. The team is bad anyway, so we may as well ride with the guy we are paying and see if the kids can be better when they are ready.
Jarry is tandem guy. He cannot play 55-60 games.
You mean aside from the 2/3rds of the season where he sucked, Jarry played respectably? Well, hot damn, give him the keys to the kingdom.
The solution here is simple: Jarry and Ned start the season as the duo on a 66% and 33% share in net respectively. If Jarry is awful they can waive him to the minors and call up Blomqvist if it’s early in the season or possibly Murashov later in the season.
As pointed out already on here, there’s no need to move Jarry with assets or buy him out either.
If he plays well he’ll either boost the team’s chances at a playoff possibility OR boost his possible trade value.
Are we tanking for McKenna? Then Jarry is the man.
If he plays well, we’ll trade him faster than Randy Carlyle. If he doesn’t, lottery.
Are we trying to win? Then he gotta go.
Except the price it will take to move him (and Graves) means there won’t be enough assets left to make enough improvements to win, so…I think we just have to fall on this grenade.