As Tristan Jarry returns, who is the Penguins top goaltender?
Joel Blomqvist is part of an exclusive fraternity at the moment.
He's the only goaltender currently on the Pittsburgh Penguins' roster who has yet to play a game for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins this season.
And during a practice session in Cranberry on Sunday, the rookie got the bulk of the repetitions that were shared between himself as well as veterans Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic, each of whom has spent time with the organization's American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate for conditioning purposes during the first month of the 2024-25 season.
Jarry, the would-be top goaltender of the franchise, rejoined the NHL roster after his conditioning assignment came to an end Saturday. In five AHL contests, Jarry had a 4-1-0 record, a 2.16 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.
Those figures — while accrued against a lesser level of competition — represented a stark improvement over his unimpressive numbers at the NHL level. In three games with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jarry posted a 1-1-0 record, a 5.47 goals-against average and .836 save percentage.
Those struggles prompted management to send Jarry to Northeast Pennsylvania in the hopes he could regain the form that has made him a two-time All-Star.
"Obviously, the first couple of games up here (in the NHL) didn't go the way that I wanted," Jarry said. "So, it was just going down there, kind of finding my game a little bit and being able to play those games consecutively and work those things out."
How things will work out with the Pittsburgh Penguins' net in the immediate future remains to be seen. The team hosts the sturdy Dallas Stars on Monday and has four games in total this week. While the identity of their starting goaltender — and his backup, for that matter — for Monday's contest has yet to be revealed, coach Mike Sullivan suggested all three will be part of the NHL roster for the time being.
"In the short term, we feel like we have three capable guys," Sullivan said. "(Blomqvist) has played extremely well. (Nedeljkovic) has played solid also. And (Jarry) obviously has a body of work here. We'll put together a game plan where we keep all these guys in the mix."
Ultimately, one factor will dictate the alchemy of their lineup at all positions.
"Which guys gives us the best chance to win," Sullivan said. "That is what pro sports is all about. Performance is always going to be the dictator.
"There will be opportunity for those that play well."
Blomqvist played quite well Friday in a 4-2 road win against the Washington Capitals, stopping 32 of 34 shots. While he saw most of the shots in practice on Sunday, Nedeljkovic and Jarry divided their labor. Though, to the naked eye, Nedeljkovic appeared to be the top option in that deployment. He often saw the first bevy of shots during drills while Jarry watched from the boards or the bench before swapping in.
"You just try to stay positive," said Nedeljkovic, who has a 2-3-2 record. "Be positive and be a good teammate. That's all it is. Joel has done an incredible job to start the year and in camp and making it a difficult decision to make a change. That's what you want to see. You want to have a guy in the net that's feeling himself, that's playing a good, confident game and giving the guys in front of you a chance to win. He's been doing that. Same thing for the other two guys (himself and Jarry). We're just trying to do the same thing we can in practice. Bring a good attitude and work hard."
Blomqvist and Nedeljkovic have each played in seven games this season. Were it not for an undisclosed injury Nedeljkovic suffered during the preseason, Blomqvist might have opened the regular season on the AHL roster and possibly stayed there to this point of the 2024-25 campaign.
But with a 3-4-0 record as well as 3.25 goals-against average and .913 save percentage, he has been the team's most successful goaltender, at least based on wins.
"I didn't expect to get this amount of chances at the beginning of the season but I'm really happy for it," said Blomqivst, an AHL All-Star last season. "I felt I've done a decent job of showing my best in the opportunities that I've got."
Now, it's time for Jarry to be his best if he hopes to reclaim his role as the Penguins' — the Pittsburgh Penguins' — top goaltender.
"I want to come back here and I want to play well," Jarry said. "That's my goal. That's what I want to do. I want to help this team as much as possible."
