A Broken Record - Tristan Jarry Placed on Waivers

For a large faction of Penguins fans, to see this tweet from the official Penguins account made lunch taste a whole lot better today.

Pittsburgh's disgruntled goaltender, Tristan Jarry, will be placed on waivers along with his 5 year, $26.8M contract. His frontloaded salary included a $5.3M cap hit for the 2024-25 season.

Jarry's time in Pittsburgh has been extremely polarizing. It's easy to forget that Jarry was named to two All-Star teams, once in 2019-20 and again in 2021-22. Both seasons he finished 7th in Vezina Award voting. It's not like he hasn't had shining moments in black and gold.

Those days of him being considered a premier NHL goalie have been long gone. Very contentious emotions met when Penguins' GM Kyle Dubas signed Jarry to the huge contract extension before the start of the 2023-24 season. Many looked at the deal and wondered why he got so much and for so long. Now, the Penguins are facing the repercussions of such an albatross contract.

This season was a rollercoaster for the Penguins' netminder. It started off much like the end of last season - giving up goals on bad shots and letting in an early goal. This led the Penguins to send Jarry down to the AHL on a conditioning term.

While in Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Jarry seemed to get back a lot of confidence, and when he returned in to the NHL in late November, he sparked the Penguins on a surge that got them back in the playoff race.

However, the surge was shortlived. In his last four starts, Jarry went winless and only eclipsed a .900 save percentage once in that span.

The ghosts of the first shot haunted Jarry all season to the point where it became a truly baffling occurrence.

It's debilitating for a team when they're playing from behind every night, and while Jarry would often settle in and keep his team in the game later, he failed to keep his team in the game from the opening puck drop.

Now what?

From the 2pm hour today, the other 31 NHL teams have 24 hours to make a claim for Tristan Jarry.

If he is not claimed, then the Penguins can send him back to the AHL.

If he is claimed, the team will assume control of the player and his contract.

What should Penguins fans hope for?

I'll be truthful. I tried as long as I could to hold onto Jarry, to give him a chance. I know there is something more in him, and the past indicates that there is an elite level to his play.

But I won't pretend like it's time to move on. The best way I can describe Jarry is that he's a broken record. Continuously spinning, skipping beats, causing static, and ultimately being unplayable. Nobody wants to listen to a broken record.

That being said, the best case scenario is for a team to make a claim for him so his contract can be offloaded.

With the way waivers works, a team can work a trade with the Penguins, which could allow Pittsburgh to retain some of his salary to make it more appealing for another team to take him on.

This is an option, and it might have to be the option.

I'm hard pressed to find a team that will take on Jarry's contract. It does taper off in the back end, so perhaps that is to the advantage of Pittsburgh. However, as things currently sit, there likely won't be a taker unless the Penguins retain some of the contract.

My suggestion would be to retain 25% of the contract and ask for future considerations. That puts the ball in the other team's court and allows them the freedom to work through the deal instead of taking the full brunt of the contract.

Potential suitors could include teams like the Blackhawks, Canucks, Sabres, or Canadiens. If the Sharks didn't take on Alexander Georgiev earlier this season I would put them on the list, but I find it hard to believe they'd take on another broken goaltender.

We'll know more by this time tomorrow, but until then, the Penguins will have to sit and wait to see if another team places a claim.