WINNIPEG, Manitoba – Backup goaltender Tristan Jarry is expected to make his season debut for the Penguins when they face the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday at the Bell MTS Place.
Matt Murray has started and completed all five of the team’s games to this point of the season.
Jarry, 24, has appeared in 29 career games before this season and has a 14-8-3 record, a 2.66 goals against average, a .906 save percentage and two shutouts.
Due in part to his modest salary cap hit ($675,000), Jarry won a battle in training camp for the backup role with incumbent backup Casey DeSmith, who carries a potential salary cap hit of $1.25 million. Assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton prior to the start of the regular season, Jarry only counts for $175,000 against the cap while he is on the AHL Penguins’ roster.
“(Jarry) had a really strong camp,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “When you watch the exhibition games that he played, he played extremely well. As did Casey. That’s not an easy decision that we made. But they’re two guys, we believe in both of them. They’re both high quality goaltenders. We obviously believe in Tristan with the decision that we made. We know that he can give us a chance to win. He’s a good goaltender.”
Notes:
• Erik Gudbranson will return to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for two games. He is expected to play on a pairing with rookie defenseman John Marino. Defenseman Jack Johnson will be a scratch along with fellow defensemen Juuso Riikola and Chad Ruhwedel.
• The Penguins have a 48-13-3 record all-time against the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers franchise.
• Jarry is expected to face Jets goaltender Laurent Brossoint. The two were a tandem as junior players with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League earlier this decade. Brossoit has appeared in two games this season and has a 1-1-0 record with a 3.84 goals against average and an .889 save percentage.
• Jets forward Andrew Copp has played 299 career games.
