For much of the season, the Pittsburgh Penguins were carrying three goaltenders on their roster in Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic, and rookie Joel Blomqvist.
However, because of injuries to the forward group, the Penguins had to make some tough decisions.
On Thursday – despite being the Penguins’ best goaltender up to this point in the season – Blomqvist was optioned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS), Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate, to make way for the Penguins to recall two healthy forwards.
The Penguins want Blomqvist around at the NHL level, and, aside from an outlier of a bad performance by him in a 7-1 loss on Nov. 11 to the Dallas Stars, he was pretty steadily turning in solid performances.
Before that loss, Blomqvist was riding a 3.25 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage, and even his updated numbers of 3.60 and .904, respectively, are still the best marks on the team. He has also faced far more shots on goal than both Nedeljkovic and Jarry: His 261 total shots faced over eight games are more than Nedeljkovic’s (251 in nine games) and Jarry’s (111 in four games), and those eight games include that 8-shot Dallas performance before his pulling during the first period.
So, this begs the question: Should the Penguins look to the trade market to ensure that their best goaltender playing games at the NHL level?
In an ideal situation, Jarry would go on a great stretch of games for the Penguins and bolster his trade value. But the reality is that Nedeljkovic – because of his contract – is much easier to trade.
In the grand scheme of things, Jarry’s abysmal .847 save percentage on the season isn’t that much different than Nedeljkovic’s .886 save percentage in a much larger sample that it’s worth keeping him around for the sake of hoping to move Jarry. If Jarry was to be moved, it would be down the line in the season when he would actually have some runway to prove his disatrous start was a fluke.
But if the Penguins want to win some games – and sooner rather than later – it might be in their best interest to make way for Blomqvist as soon as possible. There are teams in need of goaltending help across the league, and Nedeljkovic is a cheap, serviceable backup or “1B for those teams.
