Jarry is who he is. He won’t change and some of his comments are beyond just shirking his responsibility as a goalie
Oh right, I forgot to touch on that.
Either he doesn't SEE there's an issue with his performances.. which is a serious problem.
Or he just will not ADMIT there's an issue with his performances.. which is much, much worse and could be fairly toxic given enough time.
I don't think he takes any responsibility, that he will continue to ever mention he played badly. Karlsson does this too, by the way, to a slightly lesser degree. That attitude would drive me up one end board and down the other if it were my teammate.
If Jarry had been "okay" for the season, we'd be looking at a marginal playoff berth (and likely quick exit) or another near miss. Alas
I will start by saying that I like Dubas in general as a GM for the Penguins. He's done more good than bad. His trading track record this season is arguably an A+, even though you might argue about the trades he didn't make. The Graves' situation looks unsolvable by now, but by the time the contract was signed I thought it was pretty good value for a 2nd pairing LD. I still think he would do better with a different system, but that's something I'll never know. I don't expect Sully to be gone at least until next offseason, after the next Olympics.
On the other hand, Jarry's never made sense and it looked bad from day 1. It looked like a panic move by KD. Jarry's numbers can be great for stretches, but he never, at any point is his career, could be a true #1 consistently for an entire season. His only playoff series was terrible. He was signed considering he would stay at or near the top of the level he can play for much longer than he ever did. Consistency is much, much more key for goalies than for skaters.
I'm in the camp that you simply don't sign goalies long-term, unless you have someone Vasilevskiy or Hellebuyck. There are only a few goalies that deserve long-term contracts and Jarry isn't one of them. I was happy when Murray was traded. I think he was reportedly asking for 6M x 6 years, ended up signing for 6.25M x 4 years in Ottawa. Imagine how that contract would have aged here... by season 2 he was already playing games in the AHL after going unclaimed through waivers. It likely wouldn't even prevented the Jarry signing - by that time Murray was already in Toronto and barely played the following season before his big contract expired.
Jarry signed his contract on July 1, 2023. 5.375M x 5 years. During the 22-23 season, he went 24-13-7, .909 SV%, 2.90 GAA. His carrer totals between 2019-20 until 2022-23 were 103-52-17, averaging .915 SV% and 2.62 GAA. His total wins are 7th in the NHL in that period, SV% is 10th and GAA is 27th. He was 28yo when he signed that extension. His record since is 34-36-11, .898 SV%, 3.01 GAA.
DeSmith was still under contract but was traded a month later in the Karlsson deal, Lindberg had disappointing numbers in the AHL, Blomqvist had yet to play a full season for WBS, Murashov was in Russia being drafted the year before, Gauthier split the season between WBS and Wheeling. No one was NHL ready in the goalie system.
Another goalies signed that offseason, with their age, contract, record from 2019-20 until 2022-23 and record since 2023-24
Joonas Korpisalo 29yo, 4M x 5 years
53-50-16, .902 SV%, 3.09 GAA between 19-23
31-36-7, .890 SV%, 3.18 GAA since 23-24
MacKenzie Blackwood 26yo, 2.35M x 2years
55-47-18, .904 SV%, 3.03 GAA between 19-23
38-44-10, ,907 SV%, 2.91 GAA since 23-24
Kevin Lankinen 28yo, 2M x 1 year
34-37-12, .904 SV%, 3.13 GAA between 19-23
35-21-9, .902 SV%, 2.71 GAA since 23-24
Laurent Brossoit 30yo, 1.75M x 1 year
29-22-7, .905 SV%, 2.78 GAA between 19-23
15-5-2, .927 SV%, 2.00 GAA for 23-24 and didn't play this season due to injury
James Reimer 35yo, 1.50M x 1 year
60-49-22, .904 SV%, 3.00 GAA between 19-23
20-16-4, .905 SV%, 2.96 GAA since 23-24
Alex Nedeljkovic 27yo, 1.50M x 1 year
41-38-15, .906 SV%, 2.98 between 19-23
31-22-12, .898 SV%, 3.06 GAA since 23-24
Anthony Stolarz 29yo, 1.1M x 1 year
21-18-3, .913 SV%, 2.88 GAA between 19-23
34-15-5, .916 SV%, 2.16 GAA since 23-24
Cam Talbot 35 yo, 1M x 1 year
80-44-12, .911 SV%, 2.75 GAA between 19-23
47-38-10, .909 SV%, 2.66 GAA since 23-24
Alex Lyon 30yo, 900k x 2 years
12-8-4, .907 SV%, 3.05 GAA between 19-23
33-27-6, .901 SV%, 2.97 GAA since 23-24
Martin Jones 33yo, 875k x 1 year
71-65-12, .895 SV%, 3.15 GAA between 19-23
19-11-8, .902 SV%, 2.87 GAA for 23-24 and didn't sign a NHL contract this season
David Rittich, 31yo, 875k x 1 year
44-36-13, .902 SV%, 2.98 GAA between 19-23
28-19-5, .905 SV%, 2.46 GAA since 23-24
Jonathan Quick 37yo, 825k x 1 year
66-59-21, .899 SV%, 2.90 GAA between 19-23
28-12-4, .905 SV%, 2.80 GAA since 23-24
I didn't include Andersen and Varlamov who were UFAs on July 1st, but re-signed with their old teams. Hill and Daccord were pending UFAs that re-signed just before July 1st. Aaron Dell signed a NHL contract but bounced between the AHL and the ECHL since.
I'd agree it was a great UFA year for goalies. But knowing how much money Jarry was asking and how inconsistent his play always was (on top of this attitude), you had to consider other options. His flaws were clear. His play already started to slip but management banked he would recover (he didn't). He had better stats than most other guys, but paying that much money for that long for a goalie rarely works well.
Other than Korpisalo, who got a contract just as long as Jarry's for someone Ottawa though was the answer (he wasn't) and got traded to Boston just one year later, I'd have taken most of these guys over Jarry to what he was signed for. Blackwood wasn't qualified by NJ and ended up as an UFA. He might not have been seen as an upgrade, but his 2-year contract was worth less than Jarry's AAV. Talbot was the option that I considered the most interesting at that time, even though he was coming from a year with poor stats after 3 solid years with Calgary and Minnesota... and that age he could have seen as starting to slow down, so it wasn't a surprise when signed a cheap contract only for one year with LA. But the fact he was signed on July 1st could be an indication his poor season was perceived as more of a product of playing behind a bad team.
Lankinen, Brossoit, Stolarz, Reimer, Lyon, Rittich were all deeply entrenched in the backup category at best, even though Lankinen and Stolarz are starters now. Jones was already terrible. I think Quick only wanted to go to NYR.
/end of rant
TL;DR - you don't sign goalies for long term contracts
