Penguins send Tristan Jarry to AHL Wilkes-Barre on conditioning loan

The next step of rebuilding Tristan Jarry is here, what it means and what to expect

The Penguins made a transaction on Saturday morning to send Tristan Jarry to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL on a conditioning loan.

And thus the most unusual and interesting story for the Pens continues. Jarry has fallen from grace quickly after three starts this season. Coach Mike Sullivan talked about how the team wanted to help players through some of the struggles they endure.

Then again, it’s most unusual for a team to send a healthy player away from a road trip and back to home to work on practice. Doubly so when it’s a road trip through the player’s home area.

Since this was termed as a “conditioning loan” there are a couple key points to keep in mind about it, which Frank Seravalli has covered:

Seravalli is right to note the player had to technically agree to it, but usually in the power dynamic of the relationship the team is setting the plan and the player has little choice but to agree to it. After all, if Jarry balked at the assignment the team could always just waive him and then contractually assign him to the AHL (and not just on a temporary basis either). So while Jarry did have to agree for this loan, he didn’t have a lot of say in the matter.

Otherwise, there are no major changes. Jarry’s cap hit still counts, he’ll just be gone for the team for up to 14 days. The WB/S Penguins play tonight (which logically one would think Jarry is not going to play in) and then have four games in the next 14 days, starting on Wednesday.

This could be good for Jarry on the surface, at least. He gets the opportunity to go to the lower pressure area of the AHL, work on his game, build himself back up and eventually make a return to the NHL. In the perfect and idealized world it sets the stage for him to take a career reset, iron out some kinks, build up his confidence and return back to where he belongs. It also was probably going to be a non-starter at this point to get some action somewhere, and the NHL team clearly had no interest in him getting any playing time for them anytime soon.

If nothing else, this move buys the Penguins more time to keep Jarry away from their NHL team and figure out what they can do next. For one reason or another, they clearly don’t want Jarry around right now. They’ve got two more weeks to see how it goes, not only for Jarry but also how rookie goalie Joel Blomqvist and the other goalie in Alex Nedeljkovic continue to play. How all three perform in this period could set the stage for what happens next in the saga known as 2024 Penguin goaltending.