Jarry trying to make his biggest save – the No. 1 goalie job

Penguins still haven’t settled on their go-to goaltender for this season

Arturs Silovs seems to be a pretty popular guy in this town.

Not quite as popular as, say, a backup quarterback is most years, but he has attracted a good number of fans for someone who has only been here for a few months and who has 20 – count ‘em, 20 – NHL appearances on his resume.

In some ways, the infatuation a segment of the Penguins’ fan base has with Silovs, who was acquired from Vancouver in July, is understandable. After all, he stopped all 25 shots he faced during the Penguins’ 3-0 victory in the regular-season opener in Madison Square Garden Tuesday.

A perfect game, even one in which his execution wasn’t always flawless, was a nice way for Silovs to introduce himself to his new team and city.

But the biggest thing Silovs has going for him might be that, well, he isn’t Tristan Jarry.

Jarry has gone from being a prominent piece in the Penguins’ long-term plans a few years ago to the subject of fierce criticism every time he allows a goal of dubious pedigree.

Which has happened all too often in recent seasons, particularly 2024-25.

Jarry almost certainly has surrendered the designation of being the franchise’s goaltender of the future to Sergei Murashov, currently honing his game with the Penguins’ American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre.

Murashov was the best goalie during training camp and preseason play, when he did not appear to be fazed, let alone overwhelmed, by the competition at this level.

Although it’s not clear when he’ll be promoted to the parent club, it’s reasonable to believe that once Murashov arrives, he probably won’t be going back.

While it’s safe to assume that Murashov won’t be on hand for the Penguins’ rematch with the New York Rangers tonight at 7:08 at PPG Paints Arena, coach Dan Muse has yet to announce whether Silovs or Jarry will get the start.

Fact is, until one of those two clearly outplays the other – even if that happens because his partner has wilted and become ineffective – the workload is expected to be shared pretty evenly.

Which says a lot about how Jarry’s status on the organizational depth chart has changed over the past few years.

He has been the Penguins’ go-to goalie since management decided to move on from Matt Murray, after Murray bottomed out during the preliminary playoff round against Montreal in 2020.

In the first three of those five seasons, Jarry was backed up by Casey DeSmith, and put up fairly solid numbers. His save percentages ranged from .919 to .909, his goals-against averages from 2.42 to 2.90.

His personal stats slipped in 2023-24, when he was paired with Alex Nedeljkovic and had a save percentage of .903 and goals-against average of 2.91, then deteriorated badly last season.

So badly that he went unclaimed on waivers in January and served a stint in Wilkes-Barre.

Jarry made it back to the NHL, but finished 2024-25 with the same number of starts as Nedeljkovic (35), along with career-worsts in goals-against average (3.12) and save percentage (.893).

Public discontent with Jarry’s play had been rising for several years, and was stoked when Jarry was beaten by the opponent’s first shot of the game six times last season. (Not that Nedeljkovic, who gave up five such goals, or Joel Blomqvist, who allowed two, were immune to that.)

It’s important to note that Jarry started this season well, making 34 saves in the Penguins’ 4-3 victory Thursday over the New York Islanders, who tested him more often and severely than the Rangers had Silovs two nights earlier.

Whether that performance proves to be the first step down the long road to rehabilitating his reputation with the critics who have soured on him won’t be known for a while.

After all, a few good games can’t undo the damage done over the past half-decade.

Jarry, 30, might never live up to the promise that prompted then-GM Ray Shero to trade up to claim him in the second round of the 2013 NHL Draft, or that earned him a place in NHL All-Star Games in 2020 and 2022.

But it still is possible for him to ease whatever misgivings GM Kyle Dubas might have about giving him a five-year contract worth $26.88 million a little more than two years ago.

And, in the process, to become nearly as popular as Arturs Silovs is today.