Goaltender Dustin Tokarski excited, prepared to help Penguins
The Pittsburgh Penguins’ new year got off to a rotten start with their 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday at Fenway Park in the Winter Classic.
That setback was amplified by the loss of their All-Star goaltender, Tristan Jarry, who appeared to injure his right leg in the first period and left the ice at the 15-minute, 30-second mark.
A handful of hours later, a call was placed to Northeast Pennsylvania to prepare reserve goaltender Dustin Tokarski to be summoned from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
He met the Pittsburgh Penguins in Las Vegas and practiced with the team Wednesday in advance of their road game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.
“Excitement, obviously,” Tokarski said to media in Las Vegas. “Got a call from (coaches) that it was a likely scenario, and now I’m here.”
It remains to be seen how long Jarry will be sidelined. So Tokarski’s stay with the NHL club appears to be indefinite.
His play at the American Hockey League level definitely has provided management confidence he can offer some level of competence should he need to man the net.
In 18 AHL games, he has a ho-hum 8-6-4 record, but his 2.22 goals-against average and .926 save percentage are the fifth-best figures in the AHL among goaltenders who have played at least 600 minutes this season through Wednesday’s games. He also has one shutout.
This is Tokarski’s first recall to the NHL level with the Penguins, but he’s hardly a neophyte to the league.
A fifth-round pick (No. 122 overall) in 2008 by the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 33-year-old is in his 14th professional season and has a fair amount of experience at the NHL level.
He has spent parts of eight seasons in the NHL with the Lightning, Montreal Canadiens, Anaheim Ducks and Buffalo Sabres. In 76 career games, he has a 22-32-12 record, 3.14 GAA, .910 save percentage and two shutouts.
“He brings a lot of experience,” Sullivan said. “He’s got a significant amount of time in the NHL. He spent a lot of time last year in the NHL. He’s got a number of NHL games under his belt. His experience level as that third goalie is invaluable for us for this very situation. We feel confident that he’s a guy that we know we can put in the net, and he’s going to give us a chance to win.”
Tokarski was signed to a one-year, two-way contract this past offseason and carries a salary cap hit of $775,000. But this isn’t his first season with the organization.
In the 2019-20 season, he was a member of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an AHL contract. In 18 games that campaign, he had a 9-5-2 record, a 1.97 GAA, .924 save percentage and one shutout.
Andy Chiodo, the Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender coach, was the organization’s goaltending development coach at that time and often worked with Tokarski as well as the franchise’s other netminders not on the NHL roster.
The presence of Chiodo helped lure Tokarski back to the Penguins’ nest.
“I loved my first stint,” Tokarski said. “I was excited when free agency came around. We had a mutual conversation. Excited to be here.”
Excited. And prepared.
“I’m up here to help,” Tokarski said. “Whether I was playing (with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) or not, just be prepared any time to pick up and go and try to help this team out if they need me.”
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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