What’s next for Tristan Jarry, Penguins

These past two games were apparently the breaking point.

Well this escalated quickly. Even if it probably took too long to actually happen.

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced on Wednesday afternoon that they are placing starting goalie Tristan Jarry on waivers, just about 15 minutes after beat writer Josh Yohe posted on X that the Penguins were nearing their breaking point with the goalie.

The breaking point was apparently the past two games where he allowed six goals on just 34 shots, playing a big role in the Penguins losing two important games that they probably deserved a better result in.

(I know they only scored four goals in those two games, but they should have never allowed the number of goals that they did.)

Jarry is in the second year of a five-year, $26.8 million contract that he signed in the summer of 2023. It was one of the first major moves made by Kyle Dubas when he took over the Penguins front office, and to say it has not worked out would be a significant understatement.

Since the start of the 2023-24 season Jarry has managed only an .898 save percentage. Of the 65 goalies that have appeared in at least 25 games during that stretch, that save percentage ranks 48th in the NHL. He has been even worse this season, owning an .886 save percentage through Tuesday’s game. That ranks 34th out of 36 goalies that have appeared in at least 20 games.

Even worse than the overall numbers is just how often he helped put the Penguins into an early hole in games.

In his 22 appearances this season he allowed a goal on the first or second shot of the game a staggering 10 times, including six on the first shot he faced.

The Penguins defense has its flaws to be sure, and their commitment to defensive play is certainly up for criticism, but that still does not excuse the level of play they were receiving from their starting goalie. It has been bad. Beyond bad.

Now the question becomes whether or not another team wants to put a claim in on him and see if they can salvage something. Given his salary cap hit (more than $5 million per season) for another three full seasons, that seems highly, highly unlikely. What is likely is that he gets sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, giving the Penguins some small salary cap savings.

In other words: The Jack Campbell treatment.

Jarry’s contract was always risky, not only due to the commitment and salary cap number but also because he had proven to not be a consistently reliable goalie. He had not shown an ability to play well in big situations, and even though he had made two All-Star games both seasons resulted in him badly fading down the stretch in the second half of each season.

The other question is whether or not Filip Larsson or Joel Blomqvist gets the inevitable call-up to the NHL.

Blomqvist is the younger goalie and might have the actual future with the Penguins, but he has not really dominated in the AHL quite yet and could probably use an opportunity to get full-time starter action at that level for a bit.

Larsson has played extremely well (.927 save percentage in 13 games) and at age 26 has probably earned his first chance in the NHL.

Goaltending is the one position in the organization where there might at least be some hope for players within the pipeline. Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov are at least intriguing prospects that give you reason to believe they might be NHL players.

It would not be unheard of for a player like Larsson to maybe get a chance and give you competent play.

None of them are a sure thing or something you know you can count on in the short-term or long-term. But they also knew what they could and could not count on from Jarry at this point. He has played 278 regular season games and eight playoff games over nine years in the NHL. There are no secrets here anymore. What you see is what you are going to get. What they were seeing is no longer good enough. They had to do something.

Update: Penguin GM Kyle Dubas said that the team will assign Jarry to the AHL if he clears waivers. Pittsburgh will recall goalie Joel Blomqvist tomorrow and bring him back to the NHL.