Penguins
Signs Point to Penguins Not Re-Signing Nedeljkovic; Space for Top Prospect
Alex Nedeljkovic got the news Thursday during breakup day. The Pittsburgh Penguins have a top goalie prospect pushing for an NHL sweater, and the team wants to see if he’s ready.
That’s not good for Nedeljkovic’s future in Pittsburgh.
Penguins president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas held a sweeping end-of-season press conference Friday at the UPMC Lemieux Complex. He often used a lot of words, sometimes thoroughly explaining a situation, other times not, but he admitted in his opening remarks that some questions wouldn’t yet have satisfactory answers.
Out of the gate, Dubas answered the Nedeljkovic question. Amongst the praise was the bad news for those hoping to see Nedeljkovic in the Penguins’ net next season.
“He’s an unrestricted free agent. He’s been very vocal about his views (wanting to return). As I said to him yesterday, we have a situation where we have a young goaltender that’s also pushing, Joel Bloomqvist,” Dubas said. “We’re going to use this next stretch of weeks, the last two games with (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins) … and then really (important), the playoffs with Wilkes. How does Joel play? Can he assert himself at that level? And then we’ll have more information on how we want to go ahead with our goaltending.”
Essentially, the Penguins are giving Blomqvist the first right of refusal for next year. If he’s ready, he’s in.
Recall PHN’s scouting trip to WBS on Jan. 24. Jack St. Ivany called Blomqvist “our best player” and their “heartbeat.”
In 45 AHL games, the 22-year-old Blomqvist had a robust .921 save percentage, leading the WBS Penguins back to the AHL playoffs.
Meaning in all likelihood, Nedeljkovic will not be back with the Penguins, for two simple reasons.
First, even if the Penguins brass deems Blomqvist not ready, the team would have no incentives to offer Nedeljkovic a multi-year deal because the prospect will be ready sooner rather than later. Nedeljkovic would merely be a placeholder. Second, other teams will most likely offer Nedeljkovic more security than the Penguins are able to.
Nedeljkovic’s Run
The Penguins backup goalie became the starter down the stretch. Nedeljkovic started the final 14 games of the season, including returning to the net after being pulled in a crucial 6-4 loss to the Boston Bruins on April 13.
Tristan Jarry relieved Nedeljkovic and took the loss.
However, an admittedly tired Nedeljkovic got the call from coach Mike Sullivan until the Penguins ran out of games in which to erase their points deficit, and the season ended after Game 82.
Read more: Saying Goodbye to the 2023-24 Penguins season.
It was a desperate and valiant sprint to the end, one that will earn Nedeljkovic a nice payday on July 1 if the Penguins no longer need his services.
“He’s a great person, great work ethic, great motor. I was very happy for him because he’s competed his butt off throughout the year, especially when our team wasn’t playing well at all down the stretch in March,” said Dubas. “He showed up every day to work–both goalies did. So it’s nice to see him especially get rewarded because he’d had a couple of tough years before coming in here, and (he) really won the respect of everybody in the room.
“And so it was great to see him take advantage and run with it.”
Lost in the chaos and intensity of the final charge to make the playoffs was the immutable fact that the Penguins No. 1 franchise goalie was benched for the crucial games in which the season hung in the balance. Sullivan called Nedeljkovic the “hot hand,” but the numbers were no different from those for the rest of the season.
The team was hot. Nedeljkovic did his job. And Jarry watched.
However, Nedeljkovic’s numbers were not spectacular during the desperate sprint to the playoffs. Beginning with the important wins over the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils on April 1 and 2, Nedeljkovic’s save percentage over the nine April games was .889, with a 3.28 goals-against average.
For the season, Nedeljkovic and Jarry shared similar numbers, though Nedeljkovic maintained a much better win-loss record throughout the season.
Nedeljkovic finished with a .902 save percentage in 38 games but had an 18-7-7 record. Jarry finished with a .903 save percentage but a 19-25-5 record.
Both goalies were above a .915 save percentage for most of the season until the March swoon. However, if you believe in analytics for goalies, Nedeljkovic also sported a negative goals-saved-above-average number of minus-1.6.
Jarry slipped to “only” minus-.7, according to HockeyReference.
The fanbase’s choice is overwhelmingly Nedeljkovic. To underscore the point, the leading (player) search term for readers coming to PHN in March and April was not Sidney Crosby but Alex Nedeljkovic.
Nedeljkovic wants to stay, too.
“I’d love to be back and pick up where we left off. We ended on a high note—well, we lost a tough one (to the New York Islanders), but we’ve played some good hockey lately,” Nedeljkovic said on locker clean-out day. It’s hard not to want to come back and play with the guys we have in this locker room.”
There has been and will be no shortage of calls for Dubas to trade Jarry. Sullivan’s decision to start Nedeljkovic over the final 14 games in which the Penguins were 8-2-4 (including the meaningless loss to the New York Islanders) certainly adds validity to that opinion.
But don’t make a point to bet on it. Or waste time hoping for it.
“What does that say about Tristan? When you close out, you look at the whole year. I think (Jrry) would be the first to tell you he wanted to be better and has to be better,” Dubas said. “And I think that’s one of the best things about athletics. Tristan has massive potential.
For most of the year, (our) goaltending was right near the top of the league in tandem. And what I’m most excited about for Tristan is that I think every player that gets in these spots at these points in their career. It can be a real inflection point, and he’ll have to decide how he wants to respond next year. Obviously, (there’s) doubt. There are questions. And I don’t think that’s necessarily just because of his play. It’s because of Ned. When (Jarry) got sick, he stepped in and ran with it. So I’m excited to see how Tristan responds because that’s what this is really all about. How guys like that are able to push back when things don’t go their way.”
The inference was clear. Dubas told Nedeljkovic they have a prospect pushing for a roster spot and then waxed hopeful of Jarry’s response for next season.
No one can take away what Nedeljkovic did for the Penguins. Sullivan heaped praise on him, personally and professionally. Sullivan also seemed to believe that Nedeljkovic’s persona helped the Penguins down the stretch (Read More: The Nedeljkovic Effect).
So, the good news is that Nedeljkovic will get a solid payday on July 1, but it doesn’t appear the checks will come from the Penguins.
Absolute joke. Jarry should have been given nothing more than a one year show me contract last summer like many of us fans said. He simply isn’t a big game goalie. Now because of the ridiculous contract he received Dubie is letting Ned walk and keep the worst of the two.
that’s too bad, basically a hometown boy and great guy and more importantly the better goalie in all aspects including personality and enthusiasm.
Trade Jarry and offer Ned a 2-year deal. That way Blomqvist can be groomed properly and take over when he’s ready. If another team wants to go more money and more than 2 years, then let him walk. Jarry has shown nothing that indicates he’s a starting NHL goaltender. He’s mentally weak and doesn’t battle to keep his team in games like Ned does. Trade Jarry either way and bring in a veteran mentor for Blomqvist even if it’s not Ned.
That is the route they should go in my opinion. Nothing against Jarry, but the penguins need cap space and there are teams that could trade for him and add prospects/picks to the penguins. Jarry does have value
No you keep Jarry, Folks need to stop with this foolish idea of trading Jarry cause it’s not happening.
Correct, probably not happening just like its not likely Graves is traded. Both are possible, just not probable. No one on this team is untradeable unless they have a no movement clause. There are teams out there who may want Jarry. If there would be an opportunity to free up cap space (If Blomqvist is ready), then i feel it would be dumb not to trade Jarry if the return was good enough. A change of scenery could help him anyway since a large portion of the fanbase seems to hate him(not me). Its all a bunch of ifs and… Read more »
Who would want to pick up that ridiculous overpaid contract Dubas gave out again like in the past? Knowing they had a prospect coming up.
Ottawa traded for Murray and gave him a ridiculous contract. Depends on how desperate a team wants a goaltender
Amen
Ned played worse during the run than he did before the run. That means Ned didn’t surge the rest of the team did.
Neds GA before 2.92 after 2.95
Neds save percentage before .904 after .902
Carolina and Detriot dumped him because he is not a starting goalie.
It is over. He’s gone.
If you don’t like it, who cares?
Jarry didn’t start the last meaningless game because it would have been disrespectful. Ok the game is meaningless now you can play. Not a classy move..
This article is one way to read the situation. Another way is that if Blomquist plays well in the AHL playoffs, he’ll be slated to be one of the Penguins’ two goalies next year. That’s all. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Dubas tries to sign Ned and trade Jarry for assets. If Ned asks for too much, or the assets offered for Jarry aren’t enough, only then will he let Ned walk.
The important sentence in the story is, “As I said to him yesterday…” That sentence precludes any alternate viewing.
Sully doesn’t even choose 35 to spell Ned for a single start down the stretch. Then Dubas apparently decides to keep the guy his HC showed no confidence in. Yeah, makes perfect sense.
Sends a bad signal to players. Play well, and you are not rewarded. If you are overpaid and don’t produce, no worries. Next, they will let St. Ivany or POJ go to keep a spot for Graves
Jarry should have been given a one year “let’s see” contract and the Pens would have in fact seen he needs to move on. Then you could sign Ned and have the young guy as well. At this point, try to trade Jarry — even for little return — to accomplish the same.
No way Jarry would have signed such a contract last offseason.
Then they should have let him go.
Hindsight is 20/20. Last season Jarry was the best UFA goalie (based on then knowledge) and Ned was coming off his struggles in Detroit.
Unfortunately, the writing was already on the wall that Jarry was not a goalie that was going to win you big games down the stretch. His contract was a mistake by Dubas.
Then they should have let him walk.
Ok, so say Jarry walks and ends up in Ottawa. Who would you have brought in as the #1 goalie and without the benefit of hindsight? Korpisalo is probably the only reasonable option and that would have been a disaster. Based on what I had heard earlier, Hellebuyck wasn’t really even available as he wanted to stay in the Peg and the Jets wanted to keep him. Markstrom would have cost a haul; Conroy has turned to be a damn good negotiator.
See a lot of fans believe finding another option is so easy that all you have do is snap your fingers and poof another option appears, or the fans believe that the NHL GM’s are all idiots who don’t how to run a team and they could do a better job, well gee if that was true why are so many of these people wasting there time on here or other hockey sites? I can admit that Jarry struggled in the 2nd Half but the days of Patrick Roy or Martin Brodeur stealing games for you is gone and team… Read more »
You think Ottawa will make make the same mistake again like they did signing Penguins Matt Murray?
Well, they already did again when they signed Korpisalo. A lot of the braniacs around here also thought he would be better than Jarry. OOPS! Lol
On July 1, the player gets a choice, and a say in the matter. Team “should have” and player agreeing are two vastly different things.
So many armchair gms say Dubas shouldn’t have signed one player and should have signed multiple other players that were available that ended up signing elsewhere. To your point, these armchair gms have no idea who Dubas tried to sign but the player/their agent have to agree and sign the contract. Am I getting that right? Lol
If there was no plan to keep Ned, why wasn’t he moved at the trade deadline and get something back for him? Even as a rental his performance and salary should have made him a hot commodity especially with teams looking for help in the net. I don’t think anyone thought he would be part of a great run for the playoffs which ultimately wasn’t enough.
You can’t make other teams make a trade they don’t want. A lot of players that you would think would get moved didn’t this past deadline with so many contenders all capped out. Edmonton and LA are prime examples where they could have upgraded at backup goalie but I guess they were both happy enough with their backups. Detroit and Carolina probably would have looked at backup upgrades but they’ve both had Ned and kicked him to the curb already.
You let a good 1B goalie go because you have a worst goalie as a starter? Sounds about right to me.
Captain Hook : Peter. I swear to you wherever you go, wherever you are, I vow there will always be daggers bearing notes signed James Hook. They will be flung into doors of your children’s children’s children, do you hear me? Peter Pan : What do you want, old man? Captain Hook : Just you…. In the film HOOK 1991 Capt Hook throws down a threat to Peter as he Peter tries to avoid the confrontation. Eventually Peter discovers his super human courage and self to finally defeat Hook. Ned did everything a superhero could do to save a season for his team but in the… Read more »
I wonder if there’s another Dubas-Jarry conversation scheduled yet.
Good one!
So the Pens are interested in keeping another Matt Murray?? UGH!
Can the winner and stay with the loser. Perfect Pens GM move!
Who would want Jarry? No other team seemed interested before the start of last seasons free agency.
You are foolish if you believe that. What do you think drove up the price on Jarry’s contract?
The Ned fans are delusional. JARRY FINISHED WITH BETTER STATS. Let Ned walk, if Joel proves himself, do a 1A and 1B like Swayman and Ullmark.
Jarry 19-25-5
Ned. 18-7-7
Better stats. Hahaha.
Jarry: .903 save % and 2.91 goals allowed per game
Ned: .902 save % and 2.97 goals allowed per game
So yes Jarry has better stats in a bigger sample size. Idiot.
The only one that matter is wins and losses.
Jarry is a joke. They didn’t even give Murray half the chances and he won 2 cups. Let the clown go. Don’t care about the potential that never comes…