The Pittsburgh Penguins goalie continues to be left off, well, everything.
The NHL Network released their ranking of the top 10 goaltenders in the league and Pittsburgh Penguins netminder Tristan Jarry did not make the list.
Despite having back-to-back strong seasons since taking over as the starter in Pittsburgh, he was unable to crack the top 10. The fact that he was left off was not only disrespectful to the Pittsburgh goalie, but also a total misrepresentation of the best 10 goalies in the league.
Tristan Jarry had a good, if not great, 2021-2022 season. He established a career high in games played and wins, starting 56 games and winning 34 this past season. His win total was good for eighth in the league. His 2.42 GAA ranked sixth and his .919 save percentage was seventh. Despite an injury that forced him to miss the majority of their first-round series against the Rangers, there’s no denying that Jarry was a top 10 goaltender in the league last season.
NHL Network Disagrees
The top two goaltenders in the league are set in stone. The Russian duo of Andrei Vasilevski and Igor Shesterkin sit atop the apex of NHL goaltending, and they were recognized as first and second in NHL Network’s rankings respectively. After those top two goalies though, there is a glut of quality goaltenders all trying to separate themselves from the pack. Tristan Jarry is firmly entrenched in that group and should've been included in the NHL .
Take for example, Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks. Ranked sixth on the list, Demko emerged recently as a strong starter and at age 26 is still improving. However, his numbers from last season barely indicate he is the sixth best at his position. Playing on the underachieving Canucks, Demko put up 33 wins, a 2.72 GAA, and a .915 save percentage. All numbers below the ones posted by Tristan Jarry.
The biggest knock on Tristan Jarry’s resume was the embarrassing gaff that cost the Penguins game 5 of the 2021 first round series against the New York Islanders. His overall play in that series was costly to the Penguins, as he frequently looked like an inexperienced goaltender out of his element. Without having a full series to redeem himself, it's understandable for national publications to undervalue him. But Jarry has worked past that. His 2021-2022 season was a huge rebound for him, showing he had the capability to bounce back and improve his game.
Jarry is also not alone in having post-season failures. Most, if not all, of the goalies on the top 10 rankings have had their own struggles in the postseason. From Marc-Andre Fleury’s (ranked 9th) disastrous playoff stretch from 2012-2014 to Frederik Andersen's (ranked 7th) postseason struggles in Toronto, being a starting goalie comes with inconsistencies that have to be worked through.
The NHL Network rankings are not the end-all, be-all for deciding the best goalies in the league. Hopefully, Tristan Jarry can use this disrespect as a motivating tool for the upcoming season. He must prove his 2021-2022 was the baseline for his play, and not a flash-in-the-pan breakout campaign. He'll be determined to let his skillset and play on the ice propel him into the top 10 rankings heading into the 2023-2024 season, though. You can bet on that.
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