Molinari: Murashov, Penguins’ Future Can Wait — Here’s Why

Sergei Murashov got a lot of attention recently, when he won his first 11 starts with the Pittsburgh Penguins’ farm team in Wilkes-Barre.

Understandably so, since he did it in his first 11 American Hockey League starts and, in the process, tied John Curry’s franchise record for consecutive victories by a goaltender. Not, it must be noted, just by a goaltender making his first 11 starts in the league.

Earlier in the winter, Murashov won 13 in a row with the Penguins’ ECHL affiliate, which is a record for that club.

The guy certainly seems to have a knack for making history.

And while Murashov’s torrid stretch of winning is over — the Baby Penguins’ 3-0 loss in Cleveland Saturday was his second defeat in a row — his AHL numbers remain glittering: He has the best goals-against average (2.66) and save percentage (.914) of any Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goalie who has appeared in more than one game.

(Alex Nedeljkovic, who played a single game in Wilkes-Barre, put up a .917 save percentage and 3.00 goals-against average.)

Murashov, who was the Penguins’ fourth-round draft choice in 2022, is not the only promising goaltending prospect in the pipeline — Joel Blomqvist and Filip Larsson also are having solid seasons with the Baby Penguins — and all appear to have the potential to contribute in the NHL.

Someday.

Maybe that will be in 2025-26 for one (or more) of them. Possibly a year after that. Perhaps even later.

Barring injury, the Penguins will finish out this season with Tristan Jarry and Nedeljkovic as their goaltending tandem. Both remain under contract — Jarry for three more seasons, Nedeljkovic for one — so, barring an offseason trade, those two will compete to retain their positions when training camp convenes.

And while both will be replaced at some point — after all, every player loses his roster spot eventually and every career, with the possible exception of Sidney Crosby’s, has an expiration date — it would be counterproductive to graft Murashov or either of the other two Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goalies onto the major-league roster until there is little, if any, doubt that they are ready to compete at this level.

Young players are a lot less likely to have their progress retarded by spending extra time in the minors than they are by being promoted to the NHL before it is prudent. That is particularly true of goalies and defensemen, since their mistakes are more likely to show up on the scoreboard than something a forward does wrong.

Damaging his confidence by compelling him to perform out of his depth can have an enduring impact on a prospect’s development.

Witness what happened with Blomqvist earlier this season. He was playing very well in the AHL and, when Jarry was struggling on a regular basis, got moved up to the parent club in mid-January.

He got into seven games before returning to Wilkes-Barre, recording a 1-4-1 record and allowing 23 goals on 141 shots, a save percentage of .837.

Including an early-season stint, Blomqvist went 4-9-1, with a 3.81 goals-against average and .885 save percentage in 15 appearances with the Penguins in 2024-25.

It obviously didn’t help that he was playing behind a generally leaky team defense during both stays in the NHL, but it remains to be seen whether he will suffer any enduring effects of his issues at this level because Blomqvist is injured and hasn’t been in a game since mid-February.

Being out of action for so long might actually help him to get past any residual effects of his less-than-ideal experiences in the NHL, and there’s no reason at this point to doubt that he will contend for a place in the Penguins’ goaltending future.

But unless circumstances, like injuries, force them to do otherwise, the Penguins should not rush any of their young goalies to the NHL until they are reasonably confident the player is ready to cope with the demands and disappointments of playing the position at this level.

It takes a hyperactive imagination, if not a fistful of hallucinogens, to see how president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas can transform this group into a viable Stanley Cup contender next season. It’s imperative that if/when the Penguins finally get back to that level, they have a couple of goalies who have never had reason to doubt they can thrive at this level.