Penguins should keep Alex Nedeljkovic and not trade him at the deadline

The Penguins have an excess of goaltenders in their system between the NHL and AHL, but only 3 of them are considered to be good or have massive upside. The only real negative out of the 4 that they have is Tristan Jarry and that was apparent when Jarry was waived and sent down to the AHL as of late.

But when the Penguins were in the offseason this past summer, it seemed like they were going to give the backup goaltender job to young Joel Blomqvist. But the Penguins figured that he was not ready for a full-time NHL job yet and opted to resign Alex Nedeljkovic.

There has been recent noise on social media that coach Mike Sullivan has been playing Nedeljkovic a lot lately to showcase him for a potential trade. But the Penguins ideally should hold on to him and not ruin Sergei Murashov's development.

Trading Ned will only rush Murashov's development since Jarry is not an NHL goaltender

If the Penguins are to trade a goaltender at the trade deadline, ideally it needs to be Tristan Jarry and not Nedeljkovic.

There are several reasons for this as one of them is Jarry stinks and is in the AHL for a reason and even down there, he is still allowing goals on the first shots he faces. And ever since Jarry got sent down, the Penguins have been getting over .900 save percentages in almost every game Nedeljkovic has played since then.

This is a really easy decision as if the Penguins were to trade Nedeljkovic, then Blomqvist likely becomes your full-time starter, and he is not ready for that. And Murashov likely becomes your full-time backup because the Penguins do not trust Jarry. And Murashov is not ready for that either.

The Penguins need to make the tough decision come the trade deadline, look to the future and think about development, and hold on to Nedeljkovic. The young goalies in the Penguins system do not need to be rushed to be full-time starters in the NHL and need to be developed first.