Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry is quickly losing the net for the team. Once the season-opening starter against the New York Rangers, he has quickly turned into being a healthy scratch.
Backup goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic started the previous game against the Winnipeg Jets, which the Penguins lost 6-3. Jarry was not dressed.
Third goaltender Joel Blomqvist was the backup to Nedeljkovic and, fast forward to Monday's practice, Jarry was not taking shots from his teammates, according to Salim Nadim Valji of TSN Sports.
There are two issues with Jarry and both are glaring. The first is that his contract is $5.375 million for the next four seasons. His contract is purely untradeable so the only way to get out of playing Jarry again is to put him on waivers. This was suggested by NHL insider Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts podcast.
The second issue is that every time he is in goal, he lets in more goals than he should. His glove hand is a weakness, his blocker is a weakness, his five-hole is a weakness. There appears to be no way that Pittsburgh can play him again this season with stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin still wanting to win.
Head coach Mike Sullivan described healthy scratching Jarry this way.
To the naked eye, this is purely saying that he is going to skate for the team and be available if he is absolutely needed. But Nedeljkovic and Blomqvist can handle the workload for the Penguins.
Jarry needs to go down to the AHL and see if he can figure it out because right now, there is no way the Penguins coaching staff can trust him in goal.
