Penguins place struggling goalie Tristan Jarry on waivers

Matt Vensel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jan 15, 2025

Published in Hockey

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PITTSBURGH — Tristan Jarry's time with the Penguins could soon be up after the team announced before Wednesday's practice that the former All-Star would be placed on waivers.

The Penguins said the struggling goalie will go on waivers at 2 p.m. Wednesday. The rest of the NHL will have the ability to claim him, but his struggles over the last two seasons coupled with Jarry's undesirable contract will give other teams pause.

Top goalie prospect Joel Blomqvist will be called up to form a tandem with Alex Nedeljkovic, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas said Wednesday. Blomqvist posted a .904 save percentage and 3.60 goals-against average in eight games in his first NHL stint this season.

Jarry is in the midst of his worst NHL season and already spent time in the American Hockey League under the guise of it being a conditioning stint. But Wednesday's news was still a shocking development given the team's ongoing commitment to him.

The 29-year-old was in goal for the Penguins' last two games, both of them losses.

Jarry struggled again in Tuesday's loss to the Seattle Kraken. Early goals have been a huge issue for Jarry dating back to the season opener, and he allowed a soft goal on the second shot of that game. He has struggled to hold leads late in games, too. Tuesday, he was beaten twice in the third period as Pittsburgh blew another lead.

Jarry has an 8-7-4 record this season with a .886 save percentage and 3.32 goals-against average. His advanced statistics line up with the eye test. He's been one of the league's worst starting goalies and has just nine quality starts in 20 opportunities.

After Jarry's nightmare start to the season, the Penguins sent him home from their annual Western Canada trip to work one on one with director of goaltending Jon Elkin. Next was an assignment to their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, which got Jarry — an All-Star in 2020 and 2022 — back on track. Well, at least for a few weeks.

From Nov. 19 to the Christmas break, Jarry went 7-3-2 with a .897 save percentage. It obviously helped that the Penguins played better defense in front of Jarry, too.

But Jarry got lit up by the New York Islanders in his first game out of the Christmas break. And after an encouraging outing against the defending champion Florida Panthers, he allowed two late goals in a crippling loss to rival Columbus on Jan. 7.

He was hardly tested in Pittsburgh's last two losses against Tampa Bay and Seattle. But once again, he was unable to give the Penguins the critical saves they needed.

Unreliability has been the story for Jarry, a 2013 second-round draft pick under Jim Rutherford, since he became a full-time NHL player five seasons ago. Whether it's been injuries, inconsistency or lapses in big games, Jarry has always seemed to let the Penguins down when they needed him most, like that Islanders series in 2021.

Jarry rebounded after his meltdown in that series to become an All-Star again. But he has been unable to reach that level in recent years, perhaps due to injuries. His numbers have declined steeply since he was injured in the Winter Classic in 2023.

Dubas and the Penguins were open to moving Jarry last offseason, but a deal never materialized. Now they have put him on waivers. It's not clear what the next step will be if Jarry goes unclaimed, which despite his pedigree is the expectation.

The Penguins have lost six of their last seven games to fall to 13th in the conference.