Penguins Grades: The Goaltending Chaos

At inopportune moments this season, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ goaltending issues felt like a dropped anchor on a sinking ship. A cursory check of the successful season segments not coincidentally aligns with periods of solid netminding, and the other segments that drew fire and ire directly lined up with the exact opposite.

Good goaltending can mask a lot of problems, and the Penguins certainly have plenty.

 Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic, with a little assist from Joel Blomqvist, were unfairly bombarded with great scoring chances and point-blank shots behind a defense that specialized in not being able to get out of its own way but certainly did so for opponents. The disappointing Penguins’ season cannot be pinned on goaltending, and no opinion contained herein should be taken as such.

But the goaltending, especially in the first half of the season, didn’t help, either.

Fifteen times, the Penguins allowed a goal on the opponent’s first shot of the game. It was a statistical oddity so unique that the NHL stats office revised the record three times during the season, first listing the record at 12, then 14, and finally finding that the 2000-2001 Colorado Avalanche allowed the first shot-first goal 16 times.

So, the Penguins missed out on that record of futility. Small victories.

How things ended were not how they began and as the Penguins turn the page toward the 2025-26 season, goaltending will not be solved this summer, but likely by a four or five goaltender battle royal in which all of the goalies get a clean slate and a full chance in training camp/preseason.

Exactly how general manager Kyle Dubas plans to have a nearly unprecedented four-way goalie rumble is yet to be determined, but such was his stated plan when he appeared on former Hockey Night in Canada reporter John Shannon’s podcast in March.

Penguins Goalie Carousel

Tristan Jarry was supposed to have a bounce-back year, or at least that was the plan. He was roundly praised for putting in extra work last summer and arriving at camp in better shape than he had in the previous year. After being benched for the final weeks of the 2023-24 NHL season as the Penguins made a furious but unsuccessful charge toward a playoff spot, all eyes were on Jarry.

He showed up ready, and then it all went to hell, handbasket not included.

Jarry lasted just 11 minutes in his third start of the season, giving up three goals on five shots. With the rookie Blomqvist waiting in the wings, Jarry was demoted to third goalie status for nearly a month.

Blomqvist had a nice run before showing signs of faltering. The gem of his season was stopping 32 of 34 in an impressive win over the Washington Capitals on Nov. 8. However, he was pulled in the first period of the following game against the Edmonton Oilers.

Blomqvist had posted a team-high .908 save percentage in five October starts, but some leaky goals had crept into his game, and the team decided it was best if he returned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL to work on his game.

Jarry re-entered the picture, but not permanently.

Alex Nedeljkovic had become the de facto No. 1 goalie as Jarry was delivered a stern message. On paper, Nedejkovic fared even worse than Jarry or Blomqvist, but he did something they didn’t do: post a winning record in November.

Nedeljkovic’s season performance cannot and should not be judged on his baseline stats. In November, he made seven starts with a meager .879 save percentage. Jarry made five starts with a .902 stopper rate, and Blomqvist didn’t improve on his October totals, but made two starts with only an .881 save percentage.

So, how did the goalie with the worst save percentage on a bad team both look like and become the No. 1 goalie? His scrappy attitude seemed to elevate the Penguins, and he weathered the onslaught.

Some might remember defenseman Erik Karlsson’s abysmal play in November. It was emblematic of the Penguins’ dreadful defending prowess and the resulting unstoppable goals posted upon scoreboards around the league.

In November, Nedeljkovic had become a team leader and uncorked one of the angriest yet inspirational postgame media scrums in memory, capping it with, If you’re angry or tired of this, “do something about it.”

The Penguins indeed did something. The haphazard and incompetent play of the first couple of months gave way to a solid charge through December. Jarry started nine games and looked to be rounding into proper form. Nedeljkovic upheld his end of the bargain, too.

Jarry was 5-3-1 in December, while Nedeljkovic was 2-2-0. However, Jarry’s rollercoaster performances–alternating very good and outright terrible became concerning. Into January, the inconsistency yielded to his worst.

And Jarry was rightfully demoted to the AHL. It was an ignominious defeat for both general manager Kyle Dubas, who somewhat begrudgingly and controversially delivered a new five-year contract to Jarry on July 1, 2023, after both tested the free agent waters.

Waiving a No. 1 goalie halfway through the second season of a new five-year contract was a bad look for the goalie, GM, and it further fueled external criticism of all involved.

Blomqvist re-entered the picture upon Jarry’s demotion, but faltered badly. From Jan. 18 through March 2, Blomqvist was 1-4-1, and his only win was a relief appearance against Philadelphia in which the Penguins mounted a comeback.

In four February starts, Blomqvist posted an unacceptable .853 save percentage, which kicked open the door for the return of Jarry.

If the Penguins’ goalie situation begins to sound like pure chaos, it was not. It was worse before it got better.

Jarry seized the net in the later part of the season. It was a feel-good comeback story, and he seemed to be changed for the better. Humble pie doesn’t taste good, but it does have medicinal effects. Jarry embraced the process and came out better for it.

Read More: Inside the Jarry Comeback; An Audition, Outside Help, & the Personal Side (a PHN Exclusive)

His ascention followed Blomqvist’s failure and a couple of angry outbursts by Nedeljkovic, including one in which he responded to being pulled by smashing his stick and storming off the ice, yelling at the bench or coaches or both, and retreating to the locker room for a moment before returning in the backup’s chair. In another instance, the competitive Nedeljkovic ripped the team’s performance in Vegas.

There were highlights. Nedeljkovic became the first goalie in history to score a goal at every level of professional hockey (ECHL, AHL, and NHL). Jarry was pretty good down the stretch in what he considered his audition for next season.

Read More: Watch Nedeljkovic Meltdown; Slams Stick, Yells at Coaches 

And as the goalies played better later in the season, they were able to camouflage some of the glaring weaknesses that Dubas couldn’t address at the deadline as the team transitions to a rebuild.

Grades

Tristan Jarry: D+

He gets a big red F for the first five months of the season. It was a disaster, and there’s no way to sugarcoat it. His overall grade gets bumped up for his stellar work later in the season. He would earn a solid B+ for his comeback.

Alex Nedeljkovic: B-

Nedeljkovic could have been a little better, but to expect him to be a starting goalie is reaching beyond his career arc. He is a good 1A goalie and a very good backup, but the Penguins dumped him in the deep end, and the defense didn’t so much as toss him a lifejacket.

His fiery, competitive nature helped the team, but maybe he went a little too far. Nedeljkovic made the saves he was supposed to make and gave the team a chance to win–a chance they far too often dismissed.

Joel Blomqvist: D

This was supposed to be Blomqvist’s cotillion; the crowning of the next Penguins goalie. Instead, it was a humbling exposition that Blomqvist was not yet ready. A late-season injury cost him the opportunity to play in WBS’s playoff games, so Sergei Murashov took the net and performed quite well.

With the Penguins, Blomqvist looked like he had promise in November, but was picked clean in the second half of the season. Once NHL shooters got a good look, Blomqvist was in trouble. It was a disappointing showing and may cost him dearly.