Tristan Jarry has provided grounds for buyer’s remorse since signing a five-year, $26.875 million contract in July 2023.

The Penguins goaltender played poorly and cleared waivers last season, doing two stints with the Penguins’ Wilkes-Barre/Scranton farm club. The Penguins got goalie Arturs Silovs this past offseason. Their system is chock-full of goaltending: Sergei Murashov, the presumptive long-term starter, as well as Joel Blomqvist and Filip Larsson. The Penguins drafted goaltender Gabriel D’Aigle in the third round of this year’s draft.

The way was paved for Jarry’s departure.

He had to play poorly enough to get waived again or good enough to get traded.

Jarry has unexpectedly chosen the latter.

Edmonton is reportedly interested in getting Jarry, but the Penguins are in the hunt for a playoff spot.

Silovs has played fine, but Murashov seems to be not quite ready. At any rate, the plan is for Murashov to spend this season at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton except for injury call-ups.

Jarry’s goals-against average is 2.52, 13th among goalies with eight or more games. His save percentage (.914) ranks seventh.

In Jarry’s latest effort, he made 29 saves to beat visiting Buffalo, 4-2, on Wednesday. It was his first game in over three weeks after being injured. Jarry made a few great stops to help the Penguins navigate a frantic third-period push by the Sabres.

If Edmonton (or any team) wants Jarry, what should the Penguins do?

Murashov doesn’t look 100% ready. He might be ready to play but not ready to excel. The Penguins need him to excel.

Jarry is 30. Not old for a goalie. He’s had good years. He made the NHL’s mid-season All-Star function in 2020 and 2022. Perhaps this is one of his good years.

The Penguins’ current goal — however unexpectedly — is to make the playoffs. The way he’s playing, Jarry can contribute to that.

But Jarry’s contract runs through 2028. President of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas should probably dump that deal, if he can, because Murashov will almost certainly be the Penguins’ starting goaltender next season.

Jarry is an enigma. There’s no doubting his talent.

He’s thought to have focus issues.

You can generally tell if Jarry’s going to have a good game in the first few minutes of play. If he sets up at the top of his crease and has his glove positioned and angled properly, he’s likely to perform well. When Jarry plays bad, he’s often so deep is his net he’s almost behind it.

Jarry allowed the first goal on the first shot six times last season. (To be fair, that was a Penguins malaise, happening on 13 occasions.)

It’s difficult to believe Jarry is a trade target, let alone for Edmonton, which reached the Stanley Cup Final each of the least two seasons.

But there’s a connection: Jarry played Major Junior with the Edmonton Oil Kings, winning the Memorial Cup (Canada’s Major Junior national championship) in 2014.

There’s a need: Goaltending could rightly be blamed for the Oilers not having yet won a Stanley Cup in the Connor McDavid era, and for losing the last two finals.

NHL goaltending isn’t great.

It seems far-fetched, but Jarry could play his way into the conversation for Canada’s Olympic team. That reflects on lack of good Canadian goaltenders more than it does Jarry’s excellence.

If the right offer came in for Jarry, Dubas would have to consider it.

But return wouldn’t be overwhelming. The Penguins’ reward would mostly be dumping Jarry’s contract.

Get one of Edmonton’s netminders in return. Stuart Skinner makes $2.6 million, Calvin Pickard $1 million, and both are on expiring contracts. Get a prospect, too, and maybe you take one of Edmonton’s slugs on a expiring deal to balance their salary cap.

Right now, the best move seems to be keeping Jarry.

But Jarry has fooled us before.

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