Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry received votes of confidence from coach Mike Sullivan and president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas during the club’s recent end-of-year sit downs with local media.

However, Jarry’s deployment — benching, to be more accurate — over the final few weeks of the season might offer a more realistic assessment of the Penguins’ internal view of him compared to what Sullivan and Dubas spoke into the public record.

But if Penguins management is to be taken at its word, it appears Jarry will remain the Penguins’ No. 1 option in net moving forward, regardless of his less-than-stellar year as well as the ignominious manner in which it ended.

Beginning in late March, Jarry was supplanted by Alex Nedeljkovic, who started the Penguins’ final 12 games of consequence, when the club was fighting for dear life in an unsuccessful late-season push for the playoffs.

Nedeljkovic led the Penguins to an 8-1-3 record over that span and also was given the start April 17 in the meaningless season finale against the New York Islanders, after the Penguins were eliminated from postseason contention.

The conclusions many have made about the Penguins turning to Nedeljkovic over Jarry, who signed a five-year, $26.875 million deal last summer, were not lost on Dubas.

“I think the easy thing to say now is, of course — and I don’t begrudge it — is, ‘What does that say about Tristan?’ When you close it and look at the whole year, I think (Jarry) would be the first to tell you he wanted to be better and has to be better,” Dubas said.

In fairness, Dubas did reveal Jarry being knocked down with a nasty illness in early April contributed to the early segment of Nedeljkovic’s eventual streak of 13 straight starts.

Still, with their backs against the wall for the final few weeks of the season, the Penguins continued to give Nedeljkovic, who was playing admirably but far from dominantly, the call every night.

“(Nedeljkovic) was playing so well,” Jarry said. “He was doing such a great job that, in that position, you just have to support him. He was doing a great job. You just have to be prepared in case your name does get called. You never know when it might happen. I think just being prepared, practicing hard as if I was going to play the next game was how I had to go about it.”

Interestingly enough, Jarry, despite not playing the final three weeks of the season, finished tied atop the NHL goalie leaderboards in shutouts with six.

For the season, he was 19-25-5 (setting a new career high in losses) with a 2.91 goals-against average and .903 save percentage. In 2022-23, he had a 24-13-7 record, 2.90 GAA and .909 save percentage.

This year, the 28-year-old Jarry had 12 “really bad starts,” a statistic originating in author Rob Vollman’s book “Hockey Abstract,” that logs games in which goalies posted save percentages under 85%.

That was more than double his total (five) from last season.

Also contributing to his eventual relegation to backup was a 2-6-1 record, 4.44 GAA and .870 save percentage in March, when the Penguins looked to be dead in the water.

Jarry’s final start of the year came March 22 at Dallas, when he was removed from the game early in the third period after allowing four goals on 20 shots in the 4-2 loss.

Asked for a self-assessment of his performance, Jarry found positives but also admitted the Penguins would have benefited from steadier play when he was in net.

“Honestly, I thought it was pretty good,” Jarry said. “There were some stretches I thought could be better. There were some stretches to learn from, obviously. But I think that I had a pretty good year. I was healthy the whole year. I was able to be available for every game. That was a step in the right direction.

“… Just trying to find another level and trying to be more consistent. There were a couple weeks where I could have been better and more consistent. It would have helped the team more. It would have put us in a better position.”

Potentially moving on from Jarry would be a massive change in course for the Penguins, given he was signed long-term only a year ago.

To date, nothing said by Dubas or Sullivan has suggested that’s afloat.

Dubas did make special note of 22-year-old goalie Joel Blomqvist, who was an AHL All-Star for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this year, pushing to make the NHL roster next season.

Despite playing second fiddle to Nedeljkovic or Blomqvist potentially nipping at his heels next year, Jarry said he is content in Pittsburgh.

“I obviously signed long-term because I want to be here,” Jarry said. “That was my thought and my goal: I want to remain a Penguin, and that was always my thought from the beginning.”

Dubas, Sullivan and the Penguins will have to hope Jarry is capable of digging deep this offseason to improve before embarking on his seventh full NHL campaign.

“What I’m most excited about for Tristan is every player that gets in these spots at these points in their career can be a real inflection point,” Dubas said. “He has to make the decision of how he wants to respond. There is obviously doubt. There are questions.

“… I’m excited to see how Tristan responds because this is really what it’s all about: How guys like that are able to push back when things don’t go their way.”

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