Heading into the off-season, the Pittsburgh Penguins seemed destined to bring in a new goaltender. GM Ron Hextall more than hinted at his desire to add an established veteran to the mix alongside young Tristan Jarry, whose play suffered this past season. Yet, the status quo remains in the Pittsburgh net with Jarry and injury-prone backup Casey DeSmith.
The root of this unexpected lack of change at the goalie position lies in the salary cap. Even with the departures of Jared McCann and Brandon Tanev, the Penguins are still right up against the upper limit. To this point, high-priced trade chips Jason Zucker, Marcus Pettersson, and Mike Matheson have yet to move, which leaves the team with little wiggle room in the free agent market. With what small space they had, the team opted to replace Tanev and McCann with Brock McGinn and Danton Heinen rather than address the goaltender position.
If and when the team is able to clear some space, perhaps adding a goalie will return to the forefront of their off-season objectives. The free agent market has largely been left bare, but the team could target a trade option such as Dallas’ Ben Bishop or Anton Khudobin, while Joonas Korpisalo, Alexandar Georgiev, and Malcolm Subban are other options believed to be available.
However, the team appears to no longer feel that they absolutely must add a goaltender before next season. Speaking with NHL.com’s Wes Crosby, Hextall stated that he believes Jarry is “going to bounce back” to starter quality for the Penguins this season. The 26-year-old did post a .921 save percentage and 2.43 GAA just a year ago, but those numbers fell to .909 and 2.75 this season. Most jarring was Jarry’s poor performance in the playoffs, in which he looked totally outmatched. Yet, Hextall – a former goalie himself – is confident that Jarry can return to form even without competition from a veteran addition. It seems he trusts DeSmith, who should be recovered from off-season surgery in time for the new campaign, as the backup again as well. This newfound confidence could be a product of the lacking talent available elsewhere or perhaps even some optimism for highly-regarded college free agent addition Filip Lindberg. Whatever the reason, the front office has changed their tune and Penguins fans have to hope that it all works out for the team as their championship window begins to close.
Sounds like a Facebook status update. “Content” also means “will drop you at the first opportunity to do better.”
Soon to be “it’s complicated.”
In an “open relationship.”
How about Zucker, DeSmith, and a 2nd or 3rd round pick to the Kings for Quick and one of our bubble forwards like Wagner?
why would pits take on that contract. I get zucker isnt the greatest of contracts but his value hasnt tanked to the point hes worth taking on Quick’s remaining contract.
They want an established veteran. Quick’s not as good as he once was, but he still fits what Hextall has been looking for. The move also clears some cap space for Pittsburgh. Wagner also is a flier worth taking, could take a step forward on a better team.
“Quicks not as good as he once was” quick was never that great was just a goalie who when he was on a steak couldn’t be beat and went on a hot streak at the right time. No one wants him unless there giving up a James Neal type contract in return
I mean, you can look up his stats, I won’t argue with you about it here, he’s had some pretty good years not too long ago. And considering the terrible team in front of him, hasn’t been terrible recently, either. As for the contracts, one could argue Zucker is pretty much on a ‘James Neal’ type contract, and he’s more expensive than Quick.
Lmaooooo they could get Quick for a 6th round pick
Its not 2014 bro
I’m 100% sure he was available to Seattle for free and they still didn’t take him
How do you tell me you don’t watch hockey without telling me you don’t watch hockey?
And obviously the penguins do not want to pay an established veteran GK or they would’ve signed one this off-season when they did indeed have the cap space to do so but chose not to.
Jarry & DeSmith both have shows a lot of promise and are on extremely reasonable contracts if they do work out.
This should please fwjbt.
When the offseason started, I said (given the lack of G upgrades available) the Pens should bring back Jarry UNLESS they could get MAF.
I was told MAF was not available. It’s one thing for fans to make that assumption. For the GM of the Penguins to make it and not call on him is malfeasance. But OK, set aside Hextall’s butchery of the Fleury situation…what about Jarry?
Two things changed my “just bring back Jarry” stance after the MAF trade. One, after knowing they could have had MAF, the same fans who ran Murray and actually MAF before him “out of town” will not help Jarry’s mental state. Two, the number of articles by team beat writers mentioning that the team has lost faith in him. Beat writers write what the team wants and they wanted to float a narrative trashing Jarry before they acquired his replacement. Except, they botched it and now they are going to pretend that they didn’t.
I’m sure Jarry must feel warm and fuzzy knowing the team is “content” with him. So, now, thanks to all of these missteps our season comes down to whether Jarry has a great sports psychologist or not.
Good thing we lost two good players for nothing and replaced them with lesser players so we could upgrade our goaltending, eh?
Now the excuse is “we didn’t have cap space” knowing that the people who have spent years bashing our HOF former GM who actually wanted to win will latch onto that and blame Jimmy. It’s a BS excuse. Absolute junk. Every team is playing with the Covid cap. Teams that want to win found ways to move money. For one example, Fletcher moved a bunch of Hextall’s bad contracts to upgrade his roster…and to potentially take our playoff spot.
The Pens path has been clear for years. Use up every asset to maximize the Crosby/Malkin window…burn it all down and rebuild with high picks.
Instead, Hextall is doing the worst of all worlds. He’s keeping the team mediocre now in order for it to stay mediocre later.
Zucker and/or Pettersson could have been moved by attaching draft picks. But, no, evidently instead of making the team better today, we need those picks so that the 30 year son on his right hand man can draft kids that Hextall’s son (who he also hired as a scout) thinks are good…all in the hopes of finishing with the 22nd best record in 2025 instead of the 29th best record in 2025…even though finishing 29th would actually be better. Brilliant.
It’s a pipe dream and you’re right, but didn’t Price waive his no trade clause recently? Is there a more perfect fit for this team?
MAF makes 7.5 mil this season and there was no chance of him being traded here given that VGK valued cap space in return for MAF.
He can be signed for half that next off-season if he’s truly loyal to the penguins where as Letang and Malkin could both see pay cuts or leave themselves.
Carey Price makes about 3 mil more than fleury and is signed for 7 years more. I think there’s a reason MTL made him available