Penguins sign goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic to 2-year extension
On April 19, two days after the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season came to an end, president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas was hesitant to offer a substantive answer when queried if popular backup goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, a pending unrestricted free agent, would be returning to the team.
“We will have more information with how we want to go ahead with our goaltending,” Dubas said.
Just over two months later, Dubas moved ahead and invested a two-year contract extension with a salary cap hit of $2.5 million into the goaltender who supplanted Tristan Jarry as the team’s top option in net during the final weeks of the 2023-24 campaign and nearly pushed the Penguins into the playoffs.
The transaction was announced Thursday afternoon, 10 days before the NHL’s free-agent signing period opens on July 1.
Nedeljkovic, 28, came to the Penguins during the 2023 offseason as an unrestricted free agent, signing a one-year contract worth $1.5 million with the intent of serving as Jarry’s backup.
That arrangement largely held true for the majority of the season as Nedeljkovic appeared in 38 games and had an 18-7-7 record, a 2.97 goals-against average, .902 save percentage and one shutout.
In the final weeks of the campaign, however, Penguins coaches turned to Nedeljkovic, who helped orchestrate a valiant but futile push for a postseason berth.
Beginning March 24, Nedeljkovic started the Penguins’ final 13 games and posted an 8-1-3 record along with 3.05 goals-against average and .898 save percentage. The Penguins finished with a 38-32-12 record and 88 points, one point short of a playoff berth.
On April 18, Nedeljkovic, a native of Parma, Ohio, expressed a desire to re-sign with the Penguins.
“If I can come back and be a part of it and help out again in any way, I definitely would be open to doing that,” Nedeljkovic said during the team’s exit interviews in Cranberry. “It takes a special group to win and to win consistently. Obviously, the core (group of Penguins players) has done a lot of winning, and they know how to do it. That’s something that I want to be a part of. That’s something that I’ve grown up dreaming about, is winning a Stanley Cup (title). I don’t think there’s a better group that knows how to do it better than the one we have here.”
Nedeljkovic largely met or even exceeded most expectations when the Penguins signed him in hopes he could reinvigorate his career following two unappetizing seasons with the Detroit Red Wings.
At the same time, the notion of the Penguins being interested in re-signing him was far from guaranteed considering Dubas — during his season-ending media availability — largely professed optimism with Jarry after it was noted the two-time All-Star did not start in any of the team’s final 13 games (including one contest he was scratched from because of illness).
“Tristan has massive potential,” Dubas said. “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. He has to make the decision of how he wants to respond. There is obviously doubt. There are questions. I don’t think that’s necessarily just because of his play, it’s because of the fact that when he got sick, Ned went in and ran with it.”
“I’m excited to see how Tristan responds because this is really what it’s all about.”
Signed to a five-year contract with a salary cap hit of $5.375 million last summer, Jarry appeared in 51 games during the 2023-24 campaign and had a 19-25-6 record along with a 2.91 goals-against average, a .903 save percentage and a league-best six shutouts.
The verbose Dubas also expressed intrigue in prospect Joel Blomqvist when asked about the future of the team’s goaltending on April 19.
“With (Nedeljkovic), I think all year everybody talked — he’s a great person, great work ethic, great motor. … He’s an unrestricted free agent. He’s been very vocal about his views. As I said to him (April 18), we have a situation where we have a young goaltender who is also pushing, in Joel Blomqvist. We are going to use this next stretch … Then really the playoffs with (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton). How does Joel play? Can he assert himself at that level?”
Blomqvist started both of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ Calder Cup playoff games, a pair of losses in the best-of-three opening-round series against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. During those contests, the 22-year-old Blomqvist had a 3.49 goals-against average and an .894 save percentage.
Those mundane figures followed a strong first professional season in North America for the Finnish-born Blomqvist. A second-round pick (No. 52 overall) in 2020, Blomqvist, an AHL All-Star selection, played in 45 games and posted a 25-12-6 record, a 2.16 goals-against average, a .921 save percentage and one shutout.
While questions remain about how other quadrants of the Penguins’ roster will look once July 1 arrives, it’s safe to assume Nedeljkovic is satisfied.
“I’d love to come back,” he said April 18. “I’d love to be back in a Penguins sweater and pick up where we left off this year. We left off on a high note.
“It’s hard to not want to come back and play with the guys that you have in this room.”
With this signing, the Penguins are projected to have $10,745,658 of salary cap space this upcoming offseason according to Cap Friendly.
Excluding forward Jeff Carter (retirement) as well as minor league defenseman Xavier Ouellet and Ludovic Waeber (each have signed in Europe), the Penguins now have 12 remaining players who are scheduled to become free agents — unrestricted or restricted — on July 1.
Unrestricted
Forwards — Jansen Harkins, Vinnie Hinostroza, Radim Zohorna
Defensemen — Taylor Fedun, Jack Rathbone, Dmitri Samorukov, Ryan Shea
Restricted
Forwards — Corey Andonovski, Emil Bemstrom, Maxim Cajkovic, Dillon Hamaliuk
Defenseman — P.O Joseph
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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