2024-25 Penguins’ Lineup Project: Backup goaltender

Can a young player push a veteran in the last vote of the lineup project?

Well, this is it. The end of the road for our summer series on our community’s picks for the lines and lineup for the 2024-25 Penguins.

Here’s what we have on paper so far, with one more to go:

Drew O’Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Anthony Beauvillier - Kevin Hayes - Valtteri Puustinen
Blake Lizotte - Lars Eller - Noel Acciari
Jesse Puljujarvi

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson
Matt Grzelcyk / Kris Letang
Ryan Graves / Jack St. Ivany
Sebastian Aho

Starting goalie: Tristan Jarry
Backup goalie: ?

In essence, this might not so much of a vote so much as a coronation. The Penguins re-signed Alex Nedeljkovic to a two-year contract worth a cap hit of $2.5 million. However, in the dynamic world of goalies, high-priced netminders are often waived due to performance, as Nedeljkovic was himself by Detroit in January of 2023.

Conventional wisdom says that Nedeljkovic has earned a place on the NHL roster for the start of the 2024-25 season in Pittsburgh, and perhaps the whole season. He finished the year starting the last 13 games and was the team’s go-to goalie at the key time of the year, earning the contract extension to stick around.

Pushing the issue, however, are a couple of young and talented netminders who may show they are NHL quality before too long. 20-year old Sergei Murashov is talented but will require acclimation in the minors. His chance of sticking in the NHL right out of his first training camp at this point is too premature.

That’s not the case for Joel Blomqvist though. Blomqvist was the AHL’s top rookie goalie last season and acquitted himself very well in Wilkes. His consistency was amazing, he started the season strong and only built on it with more great performances throughout the year. The Pens were hoping to see Blomqvist make a name for him in the AHL playoffs, but those plans didn’t come to life in a quick elimination in the opening round best-of-three series.

Blomqvist is pushing the issue and does appear to be close to NHL ready. The team would likely feel comfortable with him in the event of an injury to an NHL goalie, as evidenced by them not signing the typical AAAA goalie to serve as a third stringer in the organization (like Magnus Hellberg, Dustin Tokarski, Louis Domingue and others in recent years).

But for now, Blomqvist’s path is blocked by the two NHL-caliber goalies on the roster in Jarry and Nedeljkovic. There’s no rush since Blomqvist is only 22 himself and only has 47 career AHL games under his belt — he’s a young netminder that can use more seasoning and experience gained from the AHL for now. How long that might remain is anyone’s guess, but at this rate the question of backup goalie in 2025-26 might be a different matter if Blomqvist continues to ascend.

Pittsburgh also has the cap room to carry three goalies, as of now at least. That tends to be an awkward arrangement, though it is becoming more common in the modern era where teams fear losing a goalie to waivers (Montreal carried three goalies for all of the 2023-24 season). It’s conceivable, though possibly not that realistic, to vote for Blomqvist as the second goalie here today with an eye that the Pens keep Nedeljkovic on the roster, get Blomqvist into a few NHL games here and there and possibly send him up and down from the NHL to AHL and back as needed to ensure he’s getting enough action.

While that may be unlikely, it’s still possible, so just something else to consider for the final vote on the lineup.