Molinari: Jarry Can — and Must — Be Better. Soon.

Ten players currently on the Pittsburgh Penguins’ major-league roster have contracts that expire in a few months, which means there are a lot of guys on salary drives.

One of them is Jason Zucker, whose energy, effort and production in 2022-23 is causing his value to rise faster than interest rates. And which should yield a contract, whether it’s with the Penguins or elsewhere, so rich that his current $5.5 million salary barely would be enough to cover the taxes on it.

Tristan Jarry’s deal. which carries a $3.5 million salary-cap hit, is expiring soon, too.

But unlike Zucker, his salary drive is stuck in neutral.

Or maybe going in reverse.

He gave up four goals on seven shots in the first period of the Penguins’ 6-4 loss to Montreal Tuesday and was pulled for the second time in his past four starts.

Now, it would be neither fair nor accurate to assign responsibility for that defeat solely to Jarry — there was plenty of blame to go around — but it’s not unreasonable for a team to count on its go-to goaltender to come through with a mistake-erasing save a few times a game.

Of course, when a guy only stops three shots, chances are that few, if any, will fit that description.

“Ordinary” is a charitable way to characterize the way Jarry has played most of the time since returning from his second extended absence, both injury-related, of the season.

He has made eight starts during that time, and been replaced by Casey DeSmith in three of them.

The first was against Edmonton, which has the NHL’s most prolific offense and the speed and skill to dissect almost any opponent, but the past two were against teams — Columbus and Montreal — that don’t score very much, or win very often.

Nonetheless, the Blue Jackets and Canadiens combined to generate eight goals on 19 shots against Jarry. The Penguins were able to come back against Columbus and win in overtime, but ended up donating two points to the Canadiens.

Teams with a tenuous hold on a playoff berth can’t afford to give away points to an opponent that, in every conceivable way, should be overmatched, but that’s precisely what the Pittsburgh Penguins did against Montreal.

And while that’s not all on Jarry, he certainly played a prominent role in that disappointing and costly outcome.

And it hardly was the first time this season.

Although you have a better chance of getting an NHL player to criticize a beloved grandmother than one of his club’s goaltenders, Jarry’s teammates are to be forgiven if their confidence in him is at least a little shaken.

For the season, his goals-against average (2.95) ranks 39th among NHL goalies who have made it into 10 or more games, while his .910 save percentage is 29th.

What’s more, while Jarry’s ability to handle and pass the puck is one of his greatest assets, he’s made an uncharacteristic number of ill-considered plays with it this season. To wit, against the New York Rangers Sunday, he tried to clear the puck up the middle of the ice, leading directly to a turnover and a dangerous scoring chance for New York.

It’s important to note that Jarry, like his team, generally performed very well in the Rangers game.

He turned aside 27 of 29 shots, and provided tangible evidence of the level he is capable of reaching.

He just hasn’t done that often enough, especially lately.

How Jarry will be able to monetize unrestricted free agency after this season likely hinges on how he plays in whatever remains of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season.

Jarry still has to escape the specter of his late-series breakdown in the Penguins’ opening-round playoff matchup with the New York Islanders two years ago.

Of course, that entails doing some good work during the postseason, and he won’t get the opportunity to try this spring if the Penguins don’t qualify.

And getting in will be a whole lot tougher — if not impossible — for them if Jarry doesn’t begin to consistently perform to his potential.