Tristan Jarry is very familiar with navigating the labyrinth of corridors and concourses of PPG Paints Arena.

On countless occasions, the goaltender has parked in the adjacent garage, snaked his way around the acute angle near a bank of elevators past massive portraits of greats like Mario Lemieux and Ron Francis, strolled past the swanky private club and proceeded down a dimly lit hallway of the venue’s event level en route to the home dressing room.

But Tuesday, just before he gets to the wall-length mural detailing the Pittsburgh Penguins’ first 50 seasons — including goaltenders ranging from Les Binkley to Matt Murray — he’ll halt there and make a hard left to a quadrant of the facility he has never ventured into.

The visiting dressing room.

Now a member of the Edmonton Oilers, Jarry will experience a first Tuesday when he faces his former team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the arena he called home for parts of 10 seasons.

Jarry changed employers when he was traded Friday morning, then made his debut with the Oilers by Saturday evening in a 6-3 road win against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“It will be very weird,” Jarry said from the Oilers’ hotel in downtown Monday afternoon. “It’s going to be a whole new setting. Just talking to my parents and the rest of my family, that first game (Saturday in Toronto), it felt like my first game in the NHL all over again.

“I’m sure playing in Pittsburgh, it will be more of the same.”

Jarry, a second-round draft pick (No. 44 overall) in 2013, largely expected to play in Pittsburgh for the long haul when he re-signed with the club in the 2023 offseason, agreeing to a lucrative five-year contract extension with a salary cap hit of $5.375 million.

The hopes were Jarry could help keep the Penguins a Stanley Cup contender in the final years in the careers of franchise colonnades Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

Those aspirations never materialized, however, and Jarry’s struggles were a major component of that futility.

He reached a professional nadir last season when the Penguins placed him on waivers in January. When none of the NHL’s 31 other franchises opted to claim him for free, he was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

By March, with the NHL club out of realistic playoff contention, he was recalled and pieced together a stretch of reliable play as he went 8-4-2 in the final weeks of 2024-25.

That momentum carried over to the start of the current season as he posted a 9-3-1 mark that made him attractive enough for the Penguins to deal him — and rookie forward Sam Poulin — to the Oilers in exchange for defenseman Brett Kulak, goaltender Stuart Skinner and a 2029 second-round draft pick Friday.

“From what happened last year — from going down on a conditioning stint and then being sent down on waivers — I think there was a choice to be made there,” Jarry said. “Whether I just kind of wanted to pack it in and play out the rest of my contract there or if I wanted to make a choice and be better for it. Being able to have that choice and being able to do that, I think, brought me back as a better goalie and a better person. That’s ultimately what I wanted to do.”

Jarry is plenty familiar with Edmonton. He has an offseason home near the city and is friends with Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard and forward Curtis Lazar. And in 2014, Jarry, as well as Lazar, helped the Edmonton Oil Kings win the top prize in Canadian junior hockey, the Memorial Cup.

Joining the Oilers, who reached and lost each of the past two Stanley Cup Finals, has an obvious appeal. But leaving the Penguins carries mixed emotions.

“I always thought that I would never play for another team,” Jarry said. “Obviously, I had a contract with the Penguins and was traded to Edmonton, but that was always my thought. I loved Pittsburgh. I loved living there. I loved the city and everything that came with putting that jersey on.

“It was very special to me. It was anything and everything I could have imagined.”

The affection Jarry has for his time in Pittsburgh wasn’t always mutual. Sporadically, the mere mention of his name as the starting goaltender before a game would elicit boos. And on the occasions he was pulled during play for a poor performance would prompt cheers.

He is unsure of how he’ll be received as an opponent Tuesday.

“You never know,” Jarry said. “I hope in a good way. I put my heart and soul into this team. I hope they understand that. You never want to go into a game thinking you’re going to lose. You want to win every single game that you set foot on the ice. That’s all I wanted to do was win in Pittsburgh, and I hope I was perceived that way.”

To be certain, it wasn’t all bad for Jarry. He was a two-time All-Star (2020 and 2022) and still holds the franchise record for longest shutout sequence (177 minutes, 15 seconds between Nov. 29 and Dec. 10, 2019).

And he will always possess perhaps the most audacious milestone in the history of the team as he became the first Penguins goaltender to ever score a goal when he airmailed a puck into an empty net during a 4-2 road win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Nov. 30, 2023.

▪️He holds the longest shutout sequence in Penguins history at 177:15 (Nov. 29 - Dec. 10, 2019).

▪️He became the Penguins' first goaltender to score a goal (Nov 30, 2023)pic.twitter.com/9KVyQpeFTC

— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) December 13, 2025

But he never won a playoff series with the team.

When asked why things didn’t work out as hoped with the Penguins in that regard, Jarry objected to the premise of the query.

“I wouldn’t really say that,” Jarry said. “I was drafted here and was here for almost 10 years. I don’t really look at it that way. I just look at it as the next chapter in my life and hopefully, I can help Edmonton.”

He’ll try to help the Oilers get a win Tuesday in a place he has fondness for.

“From playing my first game in Pittsburgh, playing my first game (with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), being drafted, there’s so many (memories),” Jarry said. “I’ve enjoyed my whole time there and every experience that I’ve had, the ups and the downs. I’m very grateful for it all.”

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