You have to give credit where credit is due. Pittsburgh Penguins President of Hockey Operations and general manager Kyle Dubas swung big with the acquisition of defenseman Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.
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Dubas is taking a page out of the Kelly McCrimmon playbook in Vegas. He is going for it and trying to give this aging core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang one more crack at the Stanley Cup before this Penguins team has to enter a rebuild.
However, even with the addition of Erik Karlsson, which makes the Penguins a better team, Dubas has still yet to address the real problem in Pittsburgh. And it is not the fact the Penguins are getting older either. It is the fact, the Penguins goaltending is still suspect.
Go back to when the Penguins won back to back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017. Pittsburgh had a make shift defense in 2016 with Letang out of the lineup with really good goaltending in Marc-Andre Fleury and Matt Murray. In 2017, the Penguins was better and the same two goalies were there.
As the Penguins enter the 2023 season, their defense is better and their goaltending is average. Again Karlsson will help the team, but how much will he help this team? Again the Penguins need to be able to keep pucks out of their net. Will Tristan Jarry give them that? That is the million dollar question this season.
Jarry is coming off an average season after coming off an ankle injury during the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He started 47 games and he had 2.90 goals against average and .909 save percentage.
Jarry was reward with a new five-year contract that carries a $5.375 million AAV. That is a little bit of an overprice for a player who has not gotten the Penguins out of the first round. Not to mention, Jarry was an unrestricted free agent and other teams passed on him.
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The hope is from Dubas and the rest of the Penguins management, Jarry can stay healthy and give the team a timely save. That was a big reason why the Penguins missed the playoffs last season. Because behind Jarry is Alex Nedeljkovic. Another player looking to find his form.
Again, it’s great adding a player like Karlsson, but he does not play goalie. He will help move the puck out of the zone quicker, but this is an aging team.
The Penguins are in a division with a lot of speedy teams and their defense could continuously be exposed. It reminds a lot of people of when the Penguins defense was getting exposed after their Stanley Cup run in 2009.
It did not help when Fleury had the yips and couldn’t stop a beach ball for a long period of time. That hurt the Penguins chances to win the Stanley Cup prior to 2016 and 2017. From 2010-2015 the Penguins got exposed and so did the goaltending.
Even though the Penguins were making the playoffs, they were outscoring a lot of their problems. The Penguins of 2023 may have to outscore their defensive and goaltending woes. Not a receipt for success. Especially for a team that will battling for a wild card spot in the East. Maybe the third seed in the Metro, but that will be tough task.
Again it was tough for the Penguins to add a goaltender like John Gibson in a trade, but Joonas Korpisalo was available at free agency. He got similar money to Jarry and has shown he can win in the playoffs.
Jarry is the key to success for the Penguins this season. Erik Karlsson is a great addition no doubt. He will help the power play and will be able to help with the transition game, but Karlsson does not solve the goaltending problem for the Penguins.