After playing just two NHL games for the Pittsburgh Penguins last season, 24-year-old goaltender Tristan Jarry is now staking his claim for the team’s starting job in the crease. Jarry posted his second consecutive shutout on Dec. 6th with a 2-0 home win over the Arizona Coyotes just two days after blanking the visiting St. Louis Blues 3-0. Jarry stopped a combined 61 shots in the two outings and is now 7-4 on the season and hasn’t allowed a goal in his last 142 minutes and 46 seconds of action..
Jarry is making a strong case for the starting job as the Penguins’ number one goalie as Matt Murray simply can’t match the youngster’s numbers this year. Jarry owns a goals-against average of 1.81 this season with a 94.3 save percentage and has a 1.00 GAA in seven home games along with two shutouts. The 6-foot-2-inch, 195 lb native of Surrey, British Columbia has won six of his last seven starts and has allowed two or fewer goals in those half dozen victories and in nine of his ll games this season.
As of December 8th, Jarry was leading the NHL in save percentage and goals-against average and has been the Penguins’ top man in net after playing in just four of the squad’s first 19 outings. Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Murray is struggling at 5-0-4 with a 2.85 GAA and 89.7 save percentage. Jarry has made the most of his chances in net this year and it appears Pittsburgh will continue to ride his hot hand for the time being.
Jarry was originally drafted by Pittsburgh in the second round in 2013 with the 44th-overall pick while playing with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League (WHL). He was the WHL’s top goalie in 2012/13 with a 1.61 GAA and 93.6 save percentage in 27 games. The next season he went 44-14-3 and 16-5 in the playoffs. He led his team to the Memorial Cup title and was named to the league’s Eastern Conference First All-Star Team. He made his pro debut in 2015/16 with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League and was called up by the Stanley-Cup-winning Penguins for the NHL playoffs as an emergency replacement.
Jarry played the 2016/17 season in the AHL and went 28-15-2 in 45 contests with a 2.15 GAA and 92.5 save percentage. He played in the league’s All-Star Game and shared the Harry “Hap” Holmes Award with Casey DeSmith as league-leading Wilkes-Barre posted the AHL’s lowest GAA. Jarry made his NHL debut in April, 2017 in the final game of the regular season with a 3–2 defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers. He then dressed as Pittsburgh’s backup for 11 postseason outings as the Penguins won the Stanley Cup for the second straight season.
In 2017/18, Jarry played with Pittsburgh early in the season while Murray was out of action and then returned to the AHL in January before being recalled to the NHL in February. He went 14-6-2 with Pittsburgh with a 2.77 GAA and 90.8 save percentage while going 9-5-2 in the AHL with a 3.05 GAA and 90.1 save percentage. Following the campaign, Jarry re-signed with Pittsburgh for two more years for a total of $1.35 million. However, he was injured in a 2018/19 preseason game with Pittsburgh and assigned to the AHL. He made history with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in November of that season by becoming the club’s first goaltender to score a goal but played in just two NHL games.
When the current season faced off Jarry had made the Penguins’ NHL roster and has definitely earned his keep with his stellar play so far. He’s taken over from Murray as the number one at the moment and has helped the Penguins to a 17-9-4 record as the club fights for an Eastern Conference playoff spot. Jarry will be an unrestricted free agent next summer but is a bargain for the team this season with a salary cap hit of just $675,000. However, he should definitely earn a considerable raise next year if he keeps up his fine play in 2019/20.