When Penguins POHO/GM Kyle Dubas peddled popular goalie Alex Nedeljkovic to the Sharks on July 1, it appeared to open the door for prospect Joel Blomqvist to step in as Tristan Jarry’s full-time backup.
While that scenario may, indeed, play out, Dubas roiled the goaltending waters 13 days later with the surprise acquisition of erstwhile Canucks prospect Arturs Silovs.
Since the 24-year-old Latvian can’t be assigned to the Baby Pens without passing through waivers, it sure looks like Dubas acquired him as a potential No. 2 goalie. A job that almost seemed promised to Blomqvist prior to the trade.
In addition, Silovs’ presence would appear to create a domino effect rippling through the organization’s netminding pond. The original setup appeared to call for Blomqvist to back up Jarry, with hot prospect Sergei Murashov assuming the starter’s role in Wilkes with Filip Larsson in reserve and Taylor Gauthier handling the bulk of the chores in Wheeling.
But now?
There doesn’t appear to be enough nets to go around.
Of course, it stands to reason new coach Dan Muse and his staff aren’t just going to hand the backup job to Silovs on a silver platter. He’ll have to earn it.
The same goes for Blomqvist.
In a side-by-side comparison, the two goalies share some common traits. Both are rangy and athletic. Both have experienced a level of success in the AHL, with Blomqvist earning an All-Star game nod as a rookie in ’23-24 and Silovs backstopping Abbotsford to a Calder Cup last spring in spectacular fashion. A success that has yet to fully translate to the NHL.
That’s where the similarities end. Stylistically, they’re as different as night and day. Blomqvist is technically sound and likes to play under control, admirable qualities that may actually have worked against him behind the mad scramble that was the black-and-gold defense last season.
As for Silovs? He is a mad scramble. His penchant for losing his net at times matched only by his ability to recover with a highlight-reel save. Think a young Marc-Andre Fleury before “Flower” learned to harness his athleticism.
Who’ll win the competition?
If it’s a dead-heat or close, my guess is Silovs due to the aforementioned waiver situation. However, if Blomqvist outperforms him? You’ll have to give Joel the job, waivers be darned.
As the old saying goes, “To the victor goes the spoils.” With the vanquished, especially if it happens to be Silovs, suddenly becoming trait-bait in a goalie-starved league.
Either way, it figures to be one of the more intriguing battles of training camp.
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Hey Rick,
In a world of probabilities, and that is what we live in, eventually, if given enough chances, the most unlikely candidate will luck their way to a brief moment of glory. That is what it appears is Dubas' strategy, only he has been playing the longest odds to find his one diamond in the rough, and has still failed him. He is constantly looking for a reclamation project to pan out for him, bogging himself and the team down now to the bottom third of the league. He has traded for and signed as UFAs tons of other teams cast-offs hoping that some other team made a mistake. To date none has.
I know that some stats guy did estimate the odds for the different draft rankings making the NHL but I wonder if anyone has ever calculated the odds of some team's cast off, and perennial failures that are out of or nearly out of their prime turning their games around, even for one season (not just a brief ten game run). I would think that it is down around the 5th, 6th, or 7th round draft position making the NHL.
Will Silovs be the back-up, probably. Remember last season, when Blomqvist was banished to WBS in Nov, he was the best Penguins Goalie on the main roster. He was out playing Jarry and Nedeljkovic but he was still sent down. And even when he was sent down, he still wasn't given consistent playing time.
When you look at Dubas' history with Goaltending, and add it to his first three seasons in Pgh, he hasn't made smart Goaltending decisions, so I do not anticipate him making one now. If he was going to break his MO, he would not have chased after another reclamation project in Silovs and Jarry would be plying his trade in Wheelingthis season.
Silovs performance, outside of that brief AHL playoff run last spring, has been down right abysmal. His chances of repeating his AHL Cup run at the NHL level do not represent a strong probability.
On the plus side, with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb manning the Penguins' net, the odds are getting better and better that they will earn that 25% shot at McKenna.