After signing deal to stay 'home' with Penguins, Tristan Jarry says injuries are behind him

Alberta is home for Tristan Jarry.

Having won a Memorial Cup championship in 2014 during his junior days with the Edmonton Oil Kings, Jarry has planted roots there and spends his summers near the provincial capital.

He has a second place where he lays his hat … er … mask … as well.

“I want to be in Pittsburgh for a long time,” the Penguins’ starting goaltender said via video conference Thursday. “That’s what we call home. That’s where our home is.”

Jarry’s professional ZIP code appears to be established for the next half-decade thanks to the five-year contract that he signed to stay with the Penguins on July 1 after briefly testing the free-agent waters.

The Penguins also took the temperature of that pool of available goaltenders and concluded Jarry was their best option in net as they try to maximize the remaining years the franchise has with aging luminaries such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

After missing the playoffs last season for the first time since 2006, Jarry and company are resolute in their confidence of being a contender.

“We’re going to be a more competitive team,” Jarry vowed. “We’re a better team than we were last year. Obviously, for all the returning guys, we never had any thought that we were going to miss the playoffs last year. It was very frustrating, very upsetting that that’s what happened and we weren’t able to make it. This (upcoming) year, it’s going to change.

“Things are going to change, and we’re going to be a better team. And I think that we’ll have a really good chance this year.”

Of course, those aspirations could be dashed if Jarry doesn’t live up to the expectations of his contract, which carries a robust salary cap hit of $5.35 million — the second-largest salary cap hit for a goaltender in franchise history — as well as a modified no-trade clause.

Jarry, who never has won a playoff series in his three seasons as the team’s primary starter, understands the increased weight of expectations foisted upon him with his new contract.

“Obviously, signing a long-term deal, you want to be able to perform and want to be able to do everything in your power to be able to perform,” Jarry said. “That’s what this summer has been about, just being able to be healthy and push myself every day, get stronger and just get better.”

A second-round pick (No. 44) in the 2013 draft who has been selected to a pair of All-Star Games, Jarry’s talent is evident. But his performances often have been stymied by various maladies.

Late in the 2021-22 regular season, a broken left foot prevented him from being fully available for the ensuing postseason. And during the second half of the 2022-23 campaign, a series of undisclosed ailments hobbled him for most of the season, particularly during the final months, and played a significant factor in the Penguins missing the playoffs.

Jarry indicated he is fully recovered from those ailments and labeled himself as “100%” at the moment.

“I don’t think it’s chronic in any way,” Jarry said. “It’s behind me, and it’s something that I’ll never have to deal with again. And it’s just looking forward from here, and I’m getting prepared for next season.”

The combination of his maladies and an uncertain future as a pending unrestricted free agent was something of an impediment in 2022-23 for Jarry.

“Playing last season and not knowing where you’ll be or what’s happening (with a management change) and with everything that went on, it was tough,” Jarry said. “There was something that there was a lot of unknowns, and it’s always hard. It’s hard on a player when you don’t know what the next year could look like or where you could be.”

After the Penguins played their season finale April 13, general manager Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke were fired the next day. After an exhaustive search, Kyle Dubas was hired as new president of hockey operations July 1, and one of his first orders of business was to fly to Edmonton to meet with Jarry and wife Hannah.

“Having Kyle come here to meet me and my wife and just see what he’s about, what his plan was for the team and what he ultimately wants to do, I think that was good and it made me feel very confident the way that the team was going,” Jarry said. “And at the end of the day, there wasn’t anywhere else they wanted to be. So I was very excited that he took the time to come see me and my wife, and it showed a lot that he was there and it really helped us making that decision.”

That decision wasn’t formally announced until 4 p.m. July 1, four hours after the free-agency signing window opened. So Jarry and his agent, Craig Oster, did their due diligence to some degree in seeing what else was available.

Ultimately, all parties involved saw a familiar fit as being best.

“I had other teams reach out, and that was, I guess, part of the process,” Jarry said. “Pittsburgh was the only team I was really talking to and the only team where I really want to be.

“We’ve set up home in Pittsburgh. We have a beautiful house for a good neighborhood, and I can’t imagine being anywhere else, really. It was really only about Pittsburgh.”