Tristan Jarry is back (in black) and ready to keep his job as the Penguins' top goaltender
Tristan Jarry is a fan of the man in black.
No, not Johnny Cash.
Another outlaw.
Ron Hextall.
The former Pittsburgh Penguins general manager was a fiery goaltender during his playing career and occasionally donned black gear in the cage.
Jarry and Hextall struck up a kinship based on their shared vocation during the latter’s tenure guiding the Penguins’ front office.
So, when the current leader of that office, president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas, lifted a mandate requiring all of the organization’s goaltenders to wear white gear this past summer, Jarry went dark.
“(Hextall) wore all black gear when he was a player,” Jarry said. “So, I thought it was cool. So, it’s nothing more than that. I just like the look.
“Kyle called me this summer and said that I had the choice, whether I wanted to switch back to the black or stay in the white.
“I thought it would be a good change.”
Jarry certainly could use a lot of change after a bleak 2024-25 season in which he was sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on two occasions because of poor play.
The first assignment came in October, and it was a two-week deployment for conditioning purposes in hopes he would rebuild his game.
The second assignment happened in January simply because his game collapsed. He was waived Jan. 15, and after none of the NHL’s other 31 clubs claimed him (or, more importantly, his $5.375 million salary cap hit), Jarry was sent back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with no return date in mind.
“It was, obviously, a very tough year,” Jarry said. “From not playing very well at the beginning of the season to going down for a conditioning stint and coming back and not really finding my way, then being put on waivers and going down for some games (with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), obviously, it was very tough on my family and it was something that we had to manage.”
Jarry managed to return to the NHL club when he was recalled March 3 and offered arguably the best stretch of play the team saw from a goaltender all season (admittedly, with few viable candidates for that designation.)
In his final 14 games of the NHL campaign, Jarry had an 8-4-2 record, a 2.82 goals against average, a .904 save percentage and two shutouts.
“Coming back to Pittsburgh, I was very fortunate,” Jarry said. “I didn’t know if I was going to get another chance to play games in the NHL for Pittsburgh again. Fortunately, I did and I thought I made the most of those last 15, 20 games I played at the end of the year.”
The past 12 months haven’t been all negative for Jarry. He and his wife, Hannah, welcomed their first child, son Bennett, on April 21, eight days before his 30th birthday.
To say the least, life has changed considerably for Jarry since the spring.
“It’s an adjustment for both me and my wife,” Jarry said. “It’s one of the best things that you could ask for. It’s obviously very tough and everything is new to us. So, we’re learning on the fly but we couldn’t be happier. We’re very happy to be back in Pittsburgh.”
Through the good and, particularly, the bad, Jarry says he has grown.
“That’s the only thing that you can really do from it,” Jarry said. “Obviously, it’s something that you never want to happen but when it does, you have to learn from it. That’s something that I really took in stride and took into the summer, was learning from my mistakes and learning from what happened. Ultimately, wanted to be better from it.”
Jarry’s teammates vouch for his resolve.
“He just kept a good attitude,” forward Sidney Crosby said. “Worked hard and kept pushing. I didn’t see any signs of him giving in here or not working hard. He just had to work his way through it.”
If Jarry has improved enough to keep working as the Penguins’ top goaltender — or even the backup — that remains to be seen.
Dubas has declared training camp and preseason as an open competition for those roles, regardless of factors such as contractual status or who might require waivers for an assignment to a minor league affiliate (like Jarry).
“The two best goalies are going to get the job in the NHL then it kind of trickles down,” Jarry said. “Obviously, you want to be one of the goalies and I want to be the No. 1 goalie. Just having a good training camp and showing Kyle and staff and management that I am that guy.”
Jarry isn’t a stranger to competition. After all, he essentially nudged out two-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Matt Murray for the top spot in 2020.
But in ensuing years, there really wasn’t an overwhelming threat to the starting gig, at least not on a long-term basis. The Penguins’ depth was largely composed of veteran journeymen such as Casey DeSmith, Dustin Tokarski and Louis Domingue.
The valiant but limited Alex Nedeljkovic replaced Jarry as the starter for portions of the past two seasons. But those occasions were often based on Jarry’s malfunctions rather than the credentials of Nedeljkovic, who was traded to the San Jose Sharks in July.
Now, youngsters with fairly high pedigrees such as Sergei Murashov and Arturs Silovs, along with veteran Filip Larsson, are all presenting arguments to be on the NHL roster. Prospect Joel Blomqvist was as well before an undiclosed injury sidelined him to open the regular season.
That’s nothing new to Jarry, though he now inhabits a different position as the incumbent veteran. A second-round draft pick (No. 44 overall) in 2013, he was, once upon a time, that youngster with a world of potential vying for a veteran’s job.
“When I was drafted, there was a lot of good young goalies too,” Jarry said. “Then it kind of trickled up as guys moved on. That’s kind of where we’re at now. As the older guys move on or do other things, younger goalies have to come in and step up.”
Jarry realizes he needs to step up to stay put.
“Hopefully, I could have a good start this year and grow from every game and just keep getting better,” Jarry said. “Last year, I thought I was in a good spot. But as the games rolled on, I thought I could have been better. I could have played better and helped the team a lot more.
“This year, that’s what it’s about, helping the team and doing everything from my part of the rink and seeing how we can win some games.”
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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