The Best & Likely Goalie Targets for the Penguins

Hello everyone! I’m Caleb Di’Natale, I’ll be a new writer over here at the Penguin Poop! I hope you enjoy my first article; I will also be writing articles from around the league as I follow every team quite in depth and just enjoy watching as much hockey as I can get. I love seeing how players are developing as well as watching other teams stars.

Now to the topic at hand, the Pittsburgh Penguins goalie situation. To say that the Penguins jumped the gun on Tristan Jarry being a starter is an understatement, as the Penguins would have done better to strap a practice goalie target onto the goal rather than have Tristan Jarry in net during this playoff run. You could see the team lose all heart when they fought for a two goal lead, then captain siv lord lets in two soft goals, what’s the point of fighting for a goal when you know your goalie is going to let in shots that high school goalies give up? Now it wasn’t all Jarry’s fault, as defense was still lacking, even though they had stepped up there level of play considerably during our face-off vs the Islanders, it still was not up to par. I’m not saying Jarry isn’t possibly a good future starter, but he is not there yet, he cannot handle playoff runs let alone deep play off runs, what he needs is a good goalie coach & time. Now let’s dive into the possible solutions the Pittsburgh Penguins are looking at or should considering for our net minding going forward as Jarry gets time to possibly build into something or is used as a trade for something better.

Quick Note On Fleury: I will not be going over the possibility of getting Marc-Andre Fleury back, as I feel that would not necessarily help the team, though I would not mind having him back on the cheap for a season or two, I think overall it would be more for the worse then the better to have him back, as we have a short window to try and win another cup and Fleury is just getting older, even worse he still has one more year for $7,000,000 and not only can we not afford that, he’s just not worth that.

John Gibson

(Born – Jul 14 1993 – Pittsburgh, PA) (Age – 28 yrs) (Height 6.02 – Weight 207)

Now I must admit I would love to have a Pittsburgh native in net, especially this particular one. Gibson sported a decent 0.903 SV% this season despite the Ducks being beyond lack luster. From the age of twenty three to twenty five he had an average SV% of 0.920, which means on average he has a better SV% the the ye old flower power, and Fleury played on the cup winning Penguins, where Gibson has essentially been a one man show getting his team to any sort of playoff spot or even making them competitive. 

Gibson, is also good at getting rebounds as well as puck control, which means, that our defense that occasionally likes to play for the opposing team, by giving them delicious rebound snacks, as they stand there with their mouths open in shock and watch as the other team picks up their freebie, will be taken care of more often by Gibson. This will make up for some of the sloppy defense, even though he shouldn’t have to deal with our defensive woes. In my personal opinion, if Gibson can get a lackluster Ducks team to a playoff spot like he has in the past, then I believe he should be one of the top picks for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as he increases the likelihood of us winning a cup by 90% with our tight race against father time with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Fredrik Anderson

 (Born Oct 2 1989 – Herning, Denmark) (Age – 31 yrs)  (Height 6.04 – Weight 238)

So I’m going to be straight forward (as is my style) and say I’m not a particular fan of this pick. I know the Penguins have interest in him, and this is such a Penguins management esque pick, getting older, from the Leafs, inconsistent, and just had a soft year, and Pens management is sitting around saying THIS IS THE GUY WE NEED! Classic penguins decision making.

Okay….he is a solid goaltender with an average SV% of 0.915, well “had” an average SV% of 0.915, the past two seasons Andersen has shown his ability alright, but it’s at being very inconsistent, one minute he’s robbing star players blind and the next a senior league could score on him.

The last thing the Penguins need is inconsistency, and obviously the Toronto Maple Leafs do not have a good playoff record, not that all of that is Andersen’s fault, but do we really want a goalie who’s already showing he’s becoming consistently more inconsistent? I think not, and he is also now  31 years of age, and has little playoff experience.

I like Fredrik Andersen, don’t get me wrong, but I think he is the wrong add to this particular team, put him on a team with a hefty blue line and I think he’s a fantastic piece for a potentially $3/$3.5 to $4 million price tag, as anything more then that price is just to much to pay for a goalie heading into his mid 30s who seems like he might be headed for decline mountain already. His last contract was $5,000,000, and knowing the Pens he would probably get the same, I wouldn’t be shocked if they gave him more in a free agent bidding war, my eyes are already rolling in preparation. Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe he just needs a change of scenery and maybe he’s still got until his mid to late thirties for good numbers, just saying that’s a lot of maybes for possibly $5,000,000, who knows, but if we pick him up I hope that’s the case.

Elvis Merzlikins

(Born Apr 13 1994 – Riga, Latvia) (Age – 27 yrs) (Height 6.03 — Weight 185)

 Just going to start by saying this would be my top pick if I was GM. I’ve been following Elvis Merzlikins since he played in Swiss-A, as I see him being a potential Franchise level goalie, yes you heard that right. It seems the entire league as well as fans are sleeping on the level of player we’re dealing with here, Merzlikins has carried over his 0.920 SV% from the Swiss-A as I thought that he would, I believe that stat will continue to rise as the years go on. 

The thought of Merzlikins in a Penguins jersey has me drooling, as he has shown ability to cover all the holes in the Penguins play. We have no problems putting pucks in the back of the net, but if nothing really changes in the blue line department, Merzlikins should mostly make up for that, allowing us to squeeze through to a cup victory in the next 5 years.

Merzlikins handles rebounds well, he can be acrobatic, he clears the puck away well, he knows how to take up space, and has a nasty glove hand. The best part of Merzlikins is the bargain price of only $4,000,000 million, even if he stays at a 0.920% or goes up a bit, we could resign him on a long term deal for around the same or possibly even around the $5,000,000 million price range, which is an absolute steal. Obliviously if he has a record season he’s going to cost us more, this is the risk you take on players like this, but I believe he’s worth it.

Now the following is definitely my opinion, but I’ve been accurate at predicting talent in the past, William Karlssonwhen he was picked off the Jackets during the expansion draft was one of them, and also I said Jordan Binningtonwould win the Blues a cup. So this is my prediction for Merzlikins, I see a goalie that could end up being a hall of fame caliber goalie at the level of names like Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, & Dominik Hašek. A bold claim I know, but only time will tell if I’m right, and I normally am… 🙂

Joonas Korpisalo

(Born Apr 28 1994 — Pori, Finland) (Age – 27 yrs) (Height 6.03 — Weight 192)

This next one is more of an honorable mention (Perhaps more), and hey look another Blue Jackets pick! The Jackets seem to be willing to sell one of their two goalies in return for assumably picks or forwards, in which they’re in need of, its a smart play to make as either goaltender can carry the mantle as starter going forward, and so we have a goalie fire sale in Columbus.

This might actually be the sneakiest pick we could get, Korpisalo is only $2,800,000 for one more year, which is an incredible bargain for what we would get, obviously he’s going to get paid soon as he’s improved a lot over the years, and least we not forget that he went into a 5 OT barn burner with Tampa Bay Lightning where he faced 88 shots and stoped 85 of those, ending with a 0.966 SV%, which is absurd, let alone vs considerably the best team in the NHL. I like Korpisalo, he’s solid all around, and has shown glimpses of greatness, but the jury is out for now as over the season he can be inconsistent, but he seems to be showing great signs of growing into something really special. If I can’t get Elvis Merzlikins then I would lose no sleep over getting a bit of another underrated player in Korpisalo, he has promise and most importantly he has heart which is an under appreciated trait from GM’s.