Dubas admitted as much during his final season-ending media availability last week: the Penguins have a long way to go before they can be considered a serious contender. All of their early-season setbacks are not made up for by their late surge.
There are certain decisions regarding their own free agents that need to be made in the midst of everything else. This summer, the Penguins will have 12 unrestricted free agents; half will come from the season-ending roster and the other half from the minor leagues.
A possible solution to free up cap space this summer would be to trade in Tristan Jarry and start Joel Blomqvist and Alex Nedeljkovic together for the upcoming campaign. Blomqvist is very much in the running for a full-time NHL position next season, according to Dubas’ remarks from last week. Whether or not he is ready will be determined in large part by how well he plays in the upcoming Calder Cup playoffs. However, Dubas also hinted that Blomqvist would not take Jarry’s place. He is observing Nedeljkovic’s opening.
Dubas stated, “We have a situation where we have a young goaltender that is also pushing in Joel Blomqvist, as I said to (Nedeljkovic) yesterday.” We are going to make the most of the next few weeks. This weekend, he will play in one regular-season game, and then it is all about the playoffs with Wilkes.” What is Joel’s playing style? Is he capable of making an impact there? After that, we will know more about our goals and how we want to proceed with goaltending.”
The goalie of the future is Blomqvist. During the Wilkes-Barre regular season, he finished with a record of 25-12-6, one win short of Marc-Andre Fleury’s record of 26 and tying Matt Murray for the second-most wins by a rookie goaltender in Wilkes-Barre history. He finished with a 2.16 goals-against average and a.921 save percentage. An All-Star, he was. He was also incredibly reliable; in 45 games, he only gave up more than three goals six times, and those three times occurred during a single, three-game span that began in November. He allowed just one goal in 17 games and recorded one shutout.
What more is there for him to prove, really? Indeed, Blomqvist’s performance in the upcoming postseason will be scrutinized, particularly given the intense pressure of a first-round best-of-three series and the fact that Providence and Hershey, two formidable teams, will be waiting for Wilkes-Barre in the second round following their first-round byes. Blomqvist should not play Wilkes-Barre again if he handles it even remotely like he did during the regular season.
Nedeljkovic has stated that he wants to return to Pittsburgh, and in the second half of the season, he was exactly what the Penguins needed. He should, however, get a raise on his $1.5 million cap hit; the Penguins may not be able to pay it. Blomqvist’s $887,000 entry-level contract would be a cap-cutting move that simultaneously looks ahead. And Blomqvist might be prepared to take over starting responsibilities by then if the Penguins decide to go that route and Jarry’s play deteriorates as it did this year in the second half of the season.
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