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Dubas Expounds on Jarry Situation; Koivunen Progress in WBS

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Pittsburgh Penguins game, Tristan Jarry win over Seattle Kraken

ANAHEIM, Calif — Tristan Jarry is in the minors, and the Pittsburgh Penguins told him to treat it not like a temporary stay but to approach it like he’s again in his early 20s and he has to undergo a full reset.



Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas used his bi-weekly radio show on the team network, hosted by TV play-by-play announcer Josh Getzof, to further expound on the Jarry situation, which is both simple and complicated.

The simplicity comes in the decision Dubas made. Jarry wasn’t reliable for a long period of time, and the Penguins have rising prospect Joel Blomqvist, who was ready to claim an NHL roster spot. The complexity arises in both Jarry’s hefty $5.375 million salary cap hit for this season and three more, as well as additional rising prospects, notably Sergei Murashov.

Dubas was happy with Jarry’s rebound after the team sent him to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL in October for 14 days to work on his game on a conditioning assignment. But he wasn’t pleased when Jarry again regressed in late December and was not good in January.

Dubas said he wanted to judge Jarry over a couple of months beginning in mid-November and was happy that coaches primarily used Jarry as the No. 1 goalie, allowing Dubas a large sample size to evaluate.

“Tristan had a great summer. That was the challenge we gave him. He had a very good preseason, but it just started rough. So we had a conversation with Tristan and his people about going into a conditioning stint,” Dubas explained. “He went down to the conditioning assignment and played very well for Wilkes. So that was that was great. When he came back up after the conditioning stint, he was fine for the first couple of starts. Then he reeled off a number of wins in a row against tough competition in late November and early December, and Sullivan and the coaching staff gave him that runway, which I really appreciated in my role.”

Now, Jarry has to start all over, as if it is the beginning of his career…again. If this were a board game, it would be Shoots and Ladders, and Jarry landed on the big slide.

It’s tough because of the media and the amount of attention that it’s gotten. To be fair to Tristan, the plan, as I explained to him last week, is to go down–previously it was like going into the mechanic to try to get the car fixed–(but) this is a full reset,” Dubas said. “So, let’s go down there and deal with basically (think) like you’re back in your early 20s again, earning (playing time) down there. Put your time in during practice, play well, and really start to build your confidence over the stretch run.”

Also, Dubas didn’t base his decision exclusively on Jarry’s play. On the show, Dubas conceded if the organization didn’t have prospects who were progressing and ready for the next levels, the Jarry situation may have played out differently. However, 23-year-old Joel Blomqvist continued to impress and progress.

It was time for Blomqvist to get his shot in the NHL.

“From mid-November to January, we used that whole stretch to evaluate what to do next and then also evaluate how Joel (Blomqvist), Filip Larsson, Sergei Murashov, and Taylor Gauthier were playing. If they hadn’t made a push, it would have been a different set of circumstances,” Dubas said. “So Joel had had a great year last year with Wilkes and had played very well for us up here when he was here early in the year when (Alex Nedeljkovic) was injured.

“Then (Blomqvist) had really found his game and was pushing down there to come up. The reality of the situation–the way that we viewed it, and I think Tristan would also say that it hadn’t gone very well of late for him up here–we just felt that using all the time that we had set out to evaluate, it was going to be best to have Tristan and go down to Wilkes-Barre.”

Ville Koivunen

Perhaps the prized prospect included in the trade return for winger Jake Guentzel last March was prospect Ville Koivunen. The organization has often spoken well of the 21-year-old Finnish winger, who doesn’t have a problem putting up points, even when he’s not playing well.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now has scouted Koivunen a couple of times this season, and he showed flashes of NHL top-six ability, especially in his final preseason audition.

Read More: Scouting McGroarty & WBS Penguins; Guys Starting to Take it to Next Level (+)

This season, he’s been part of the Kids Line with fellow prospects Rutger McGroarty and Tristan Broz. In 33 games with WBS, Koivunen has a healthy 27 points, including 10 goals. However, it’s Koivunen’s physical competitiveness that is improving–sometimes too much.

“I think Ville’s reputation is that he’s just a highly skilled winger … if you watch Wilkes-Barre now, he’s always in the middle of everything. And he’s he’s highly, highly competitive,” Dubas said. Sometimes, he pushes the envelope, and sometimes, he tears it. We want him to push to the edge without tearing it as much and taking penalties. But we’ve been really impressed with him, not only the playmaking, the skill stuff that was always apparent, but how he’s really developed competitively and the impact he hasn’t had.”

The 6-foot, 172-pound forward is in his first full season in North America after playing the last three seasons for Karpat of the Finnish Elite League.

“So when he’s not scoring, which has been rare, he’s bringing life to the team, competing, getting to the net front, and getting under the skin of the opposition,” Dubas concluded. “When we say ‘the right types of guys,’ that’s the type of thing we want.”