It took Tristan Jarry just one night to make Edmonton’s worries feel very real.
The former Penguins goalie, dealt to the Oilers on December 12 of last season, is already putting the kind of pressure on his new team that Pittsburgh knew too well. Edmonton opened the new season with Jarry in net, and while the Oilers were able to recover enough to force overtime, the performance itself was rough. Jarry continued to look shaky, and the first game of the campaign did little to calm the noise around him.
That’s the uncomfortable reality for Edmonton now: they’re carrying Jarry’s massive cap hit for another season after this one, and there isn’t an easy escape hatch. Unless the Oilers are willing to overpay in a deal just to move him as a cap dump, they’re stuck with him. One game doesn’t decide everything, but the early signs fit a pattern that has followed him for a while.
This was supposed to be a reset for Jarry after his long run in Pittsburgh. He signed a massive extension with the Penguins in 2023, and plenty of people thought he might get back to All-Star form.
Instead, the opposite happened. Injuries piled up, his play wobbled, and he even lost the starting net at times.
For a while, that contract looked like the clearest misstep of the Kyle Dubas era.
Then Pittsburgh found a trade partner.
Edmonton wanted a proven NHL starter, and Jarry’s experience made him look like a possible answer. But even before the deal, the warning signs were there.
Just a year earlier, he had been placed on waivers, available to any team for free. Instead, the Penguins turned him into two NHL players and a second-round pick.
At the time, that looked like a win for Pittsburgh. After Jarry’s season-opening struggle for the Oilers, it looks even better now.
Edmonton is trying to win quickly with Connor McDavid, and every misfire raises the temperature. If that goal slips away, the pressure only grows.
For the Penguins, moving off Jarry’s contract keeps looking smarter by the day. Maybe Dubas got lucky finding a taker, but the trade also cleaned up what had become his biggest mistake as general manager.
For Edmonton, the opposite is true. This is a bad situation with a long way to go, and Jarry’s debut only made it feel worse.
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For Pittsburgh, it adds another layer of uncertainty to a roster that is still trying to settle in early. The Penguins do not have a timeline yet on Lizottes return, which leaves his status open-ended while the team waits to see whether this is a short-term setback or something that lingers beyond the immediate stretch. [Read more 🡒]
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Friday brought a fresh wrinkle when practice opened with one forward absent and another back on the ice, adding a little more uncertainty to how Saturday could look. The returning player also appeared to be moving well, which gives the coaching staff something positive to weigh, but the missing name left just enough of a question mark to make this one worth watching as the weekend approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Penguins New Blue Line Faces Its First Real Pressure Test
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Still, one game against a Philadelphia club that never really pushed back is only a first pass at the real evaluation. The Penguins can feel good about the way the defense moved the puck and limited chances, but the next step is finding out whether that early success holds when the pace rises and the pressure shifts into a more demanding test. [Read more 🡒]