Pittsburgh Penguins yet again have a goalie controversy
The Pittsburgh Penguins could have a goaltending controversy on their hands. And the loser could be traded.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Pittsburgh Penguins found themselves in a goaltending controversy after rookie sensation Matt Murray began to steal the net from longtime veteran Marc-Andre Fleury.
The two played just one and a half seasons together before the Penguins decided to move on from Fleury, leaving him exposed for the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft.
When the Pens moved on from Fleury, they along with everyone else assumed Murray was going to be their franchise goalie for years to come. However, that may no longer be the plan.
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Despite already having two Stanley Cups on his resume, the now 25-year-old Murray has struggled immensely this season with a 2.87 goals against average (GAA) and a .899 save percentage (SV%) through 38 games played. Jarry, on the other hand, has been lights out with a 2.43 GAA and a .921 SV%.
Both Goalies on Expiring Contracts
Both Jarry and Murray are set to become restricted free agents at the end of this season, and despite Murray’s struggles, both will be set to get pay raises. Currently, Murray is on a deal paying him $3.75 million per season, while Jarry is making $675,000 per season.
Had the 2019-20 season carried on as expected, the goaltending situation may not have been a problem for the Penguins. However, due to the NHL being suspended and possibly cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the salary cap is expected to now remain flat at $81.5 million for next season.
Speaking with Josh Yohe of The Athletic, Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford suggested that there is a possibility of the team keeping both goaltenders for the time being.
“Well,” said Rutherford, “I’ll say this: If we are going to keep both of them, we’d have to move a few things around on our team. There is a way to do things and to make that work, yes. There are some very, very tough decisions ahead.”
However, he also related it back to the Fleury decision back in 2017, and mentioned that this may indeed be the same situation they currently find themselves in.
“Letting Flower go was really tough,” Rutherford said. “I’d have loved to have kept them both. Both great goaltenders, both championship goaltenders. But with Marc-Andre’s cap number, it was just too hard to do without disrupting the rest of the team. And we may be in that place again. The cap isn’t going up. No way is that happening. But we don’t know precisely what it will be. And we know we have very good goalies in our system. So, we have to make some tough decisions coming up.”
Penguins likely to move a goalie
An interesting line from Rutherford came when he brought up how the team has good goalies in their system. This seems to suggest that he would be comfortable moving a goalie because of the depth the team has in that position. The question now would be, which one do you move? Is Jarry the real deal or just having a hot year? This season marks his first full campaign as an NHL goalie, meanwhile Murray is in his fourth as a full time NHLer.
Although it may seem like the easy decision to keep Murray because of his two Stanley Cup Championships, that may not be the way Rutherford is looking at it. When he chose to go with Murray over Fleury back in 2017, that was an extremely bold decision given the fact that Fleury had been one of the leagues best goaltenders over the last decade, while Murray was still relatively unknown.
At this point, it is hard to say whether or not that was the right decision. Fleury has been incredible with the Golden Knights, leading them all the way to the Stanley Cup finals in the team’s first season. Murray, on the other hand, has struggled with consistency since he became the full time number one goalie. However, at 35 years of age, Fleury is 10 years older than Murray.
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As for Jarry and Murray’s age, they are both currently 25, however Jarry is one year younger. This is a huge decision Rutherford along with the rest of the Penguins management will have to make. Until they are able to make a decision, you can expect a summer full of speculation and trade rumours surrounding the two goaltenders.