Next twist in Jarry, Penguin goalie saga is coming soon

The status quo of the Penguins’ goalie situation changes as Pittsburgh brings Tristan Jarry back to the NHL roster on Saturday

The Pittsburgh Penguins put Tristan Jarry on the backburner when they assigned him to the AHL on a conditioning stint. That comes with a time limit of 14 day maximum, and we are drawing to that point today. The Pens announced that Jarry is back to the NHL roster on Saturday morning.

On the surface, it was a successful trip to Wilkes-Barre for Jarry. He posted a 4-1 record and only allowed 11 total goals in five games which made for a 2.16 GAA and .936 save%.

He also, well, had some moments like allowing this goal in last night’s eventual 5-3 loss to Lehigh Valley. In what could have been Jarry’s last AHL game, it was by far his worst outing of this stint giving up four goals and making 15 saves on 19 shots on the night.

So while it ended up being a fairly successful trip to the AHL it was a reminder that a full-scale rehabilitation of confidence and form isn’t going to happen in 14 days.

Which makes the next steps all the more interesting, especially after Joel Blomqvist was awesome in the NHL last night against Washington. Blomqvist made 32 saves on 34 shots in his first game since Oct. 29th, looking every bit the part of a full-time NHL goalie.

Absent of today’s announcement of Jarry coming up was any news that Blomqvist was re-assigned, which opens the door to intriguing possibilities ahead.

Conventional wisdom suggests the easiest route is to send the 22-year old Blomqvist back to the AHL where he will get more playing and developmental time now that the two NHL goalies are healthy and back on the roster.

But conventional wisdom doesn’t usually point to demoting a $5 million goalie three games into the season on the middle of a road trip, especially when the team defense in front of him was setting him up for spectacular failure.

The answer to the question about what to might come down to how the Pens feel about their other goalies. Alex Nedeljkovic has been used with starter-style workload in recent weeks, playing in seven of the ten games since he’s been healthy. It might have been even more being as two of the games he didn’t start were the second night of back-to-back situations where circumstances dictated he needed a game off.

Nedeljkovic has the team’s trust and faith, but his performance has been marginal. He sits at -3.2 GSAA per Moneypuck. His .883 save% isn’t inspiring, and unlike down the stretch last season, he’s not winning very many games — earning victories just two of his seven starts this season.

Blomqvist has been in the background for the last two weeks, playing only three games (again, two of which were b-2-b’s for the team), a big change from the Oct. 10-18 stretch where Blomqvist appeared in four games and was the team’s primary goalie while Nedeljkovic was unavailable while recovering from injury and Jarry was floundering.

Do the Pens give Jarry an opportunity here for NHL minutes? If the plan is to let him out of AHL timeout and play his way back, the time is now to take the next step on that path.

If not, it gets interesting. Since Jarry’s conditioning loan is over, Pittsburgh would have to waive Jarry in order to send him back to the AHL. That presumably is not in the cards, given that today’s transaction was to promote Jarry to the NHL roster and not opt to extend his AHL assignment.

Another option is the team could elect to keep all three goalies on the NHL roster (at least temporarily, a lack of cap space might force their hand as Matt Nieto nears a return from IR). That would mean trying to find playing time for Blomqvist in the NHL and likely indicate the team isn’t in a hurry to throw Jarry out against NHL competition in the near future.

The Pens kicked the can down the road on making these decisions by sending Jarry to the AHL, but the time is coming when they will have to reveal what their next step is. Blomqvist playing well in his NHL opportunities clouds the picture, since there’s a good argument to make that he is the goaltender in top form and gives the Pens the best chance to win at the moment. The easiest answer is to stash Blomqvist back in the AHL, but will Pittsburgh really want to do that and put faith that Jarry is ready to be relied on again?

It’s a fascinating question and one that we should get some insight in how Pittsburgh wants to tackle the issue in the very near future. They’ve already started the process by bringing Jarry back to the NHL roster, but how much they plan to give him playing time in the near future and how that will effect Blomqvist still remains to be seen.