Pittsburgh Penguins left with few options for Goalie

Earlier this week, Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan announced that for the third time in his short NHL career, Penguins goaltender Matt Murray has a concussion and will miss time as a result.

With no timeline given for Murray’s return to the ice, the Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled Tristan Jarry from the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins to likely back up Casey DeSmith.  Many Penguins fans and commentators are left feeling less-than-confident with this duo backstopping the team, especially with the lack of the team defense shown through the first two games.

Without much enthusiasm for the tandem of DeSmith and Jarry, there’s a question of whether or not someone else can be brought in to hold down the fort until Murray returns.

Penguins Goaltending in a Nutshell

When Matt Murray missed a month after getting a concussion in February 2018, the Penguins looked to DeSmith and Jarry to backstop the Penguins throughout a critical juncture in the season.

As I look at their stat line for the 2017-2018 season, one of the more interesting things that become apparent is that both DeSmith and Jarry appear to have statically outplayed Murray in net. The likely explanation is that this is a direct result of both Jarry and DeSmith’s small sample of games played and that if given the same workload as Murray, the numbers would likely be closer.

Here’s the breakdown for the three Penguins goalies last year:

• Matt Murray – 47 GP, 27-16-0-3, .907, 2.92
• Casey DeSmith – 14 GP, 6-4-0-1, .921, 2.40
• Tristan Jarry – 26 GP, 14-6-0-2, .908, 2.77

Since DeSmith won the starting job over Jarry while Murray was out last year and then remained the backup for the rest of the season and into this season, it stands to reason that DeSmith will take on the lion’s share of the work. If DeSmith starts to struggle, there will be vocal critics calling for either Jarry to take over or to bring in someone from outside the organization.

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Are There Any Goaltenders that are Still Free Agents?

The quick answer to that question is yes, but the longer answer is that nobody is quite sure how available either of these two options are and more importantly if it even makes sense to bring them in.

The two goalies still on the market after the start of the season are Steve Mason and Kari Lehtonen. There’s a level of mystery as to what the situation with Steve Mason is, as it’s rumored that he is likely to retire, as reported by Sportsnet.

It appears that Mason already turned down one team that was hoping to sign him as a backup, but whether he’d turn down a temporary starting gig is another question.

Meanwhile, after his tenure with the Dallas Stars came to an end after last season, Kari Lehtonen has remained a free agent for reasons unknown. Several goaltenders with worse records and stats were signed throughout the league this offseason, while Lehtonen has remained unsigned.

Here’s the breakdown for Mason and Lehtonen last year:

• Steve Mason – 13 GP, 5-6-0-1, .906, 3.24
• Kari Lehtonen – 37 GP, 15-14-0-3, .912, 2.56

While injuries are likely to have played a role in Mason’s sharp decline last year with the Winnipeg Jets, there’s little hope that he could do much better with the Penguins. Comparing Mason to either Jarry or DeSmith, there is no reason to believe that he could improve upon their stats and records if he were to take over in Pittsburgh, assuming he’d even want the job.

With regards to Kari Lehtonen, it’s a little bit of a different case. Having played in over 35+ games for the Dallas Stars last year, Lehtonen put up decent numbers, even besting Matt Murray in save percentage and goals against average.

The question is whether Lehtonen could manage that type of numbers behind the run and gun Penguins team. Additionally, given that Lehtonen’s numbers from last year are better than DeSmith or Jarry, but not by much, is the risk of a Niemi 2.0 situation worth it when both DeSmith and Jarry have proved adequate in the net?

The Penguins would be better off keeping DeSmith and Jarry as their tandem moving forward unless it looks like Murray will be out longer than expected and it becomes clear that they aren’t up for the task. Having already given up 11 goals in 2 games, whoever takes over the net for the Penguins will have their work cut out for them.