Bad Luck or Bad Choices? Dubas’s Long Struggle with Goalies

Throughout his managerial career, goaltenders and Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas have not necessarily gotten along very well.

There are no personality conflicts or professional meddling that would cause Dubas and his goaltenders strife, but instead, there is a lengthy history of debatable goaltender decisions, bad luck, and constant turnover that have limited Dubas’s teams, including the Penguins.

Working in reverse order, Dubas and staff did well to resuscitate Alex Nedeljkovic’s career, beginning with a bargain free agent contract on July 1, 2023. However, also on July 1, 2023, Dubas signed Tristan Jarry to a five-year deal with a $5.375 million salary cap hit. Even Dubas regrets that one a bit, as the term was generous, even if the salary was in line with the market forces of that day when career sieve Joonas Korpisalo earned $4 million per year on a multi-year deal from the Ottawa Senators.

Jarry’s career has been on a wild ride since signing the deal, including an All-Star appearance, getting benched in a playoff chase, imploding, getting waived, and a nice comeback at the end of last season.

The back and forth might give a lesser person whiplash, but it seems to be par for the Dubas goaltender course.

Dubas’s Toronto days are where his goaltending struggles were most costly. Dubas assumed the Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM job in May of 2018, and Toronto was one of the best teams in the NHL, yet had been unable to break through the mental wall that seemed to be made of steel and concrete that prevented the team from advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for nearly 20 years.

Not until Dubas’s final season (2023) did the team finally get to Round Two. In the meantime, the red light behind the Toronto goalies flashed far too often and was too often preventable. Goaltending was one of the primary problems leading to the annual April fizzle.

In 2022-23, Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray were the primary puck stoppers in Toronto. Samsonov had a surprising year, posting a .919 save percentage in 42 games, but faltered in the playoffs, and young netminder Joseph Woll was called upon.

That was the first year that current Penguins director of goaltending Jon Elkin worked with Dubas in the NHL, as the pair previously worked together with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL. The improvement of Samsonov and Murray was statistically significant, at least until the playoffs.

Samsonov, 28, is currently stumping for work on the free agent market despite a bevy of teams desperately looking for goaltending help.

The season prior (2021-22) was again a hodgepodge of taking chances on goaltenders no other team wanted. Jack Campbell played 49 games with a .914 save percentage in the regular season, but a mere .897 playoff stopper rate, and Toronto packed their bags in Round One.

Journeyman Petr Mrazek was the backup.

In the COVID-shortened 56-game 2020-21 season, Campbell and Frederick Andersen split the games nearly evenly, though Campbell well outplayed Andersen, posting a .921 save percentage compared to Andersen’s .895.

It was the final straw for Andersen’s Toronto tenure, which included some spectacular playoff goaltending bookended with soft goals, leading to agonizing defeat rather than breaking the string of Round One losses.

Andersen was off to Carolina via free agency the following season, as Dubas chose Campbell, who then battled inconsistency, ineffectiveness, and personal problems before confronting them in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. However, at 33, he has played the last two seasons in the AHL.

Dubas inherited Andersen, who signed a four-year deal, extended by the previous Toronto GM, Lou Lamoriello. In 2018-19 and 2019-20, Andersen was quite good in the playoffs, though, of course, the Maple Leafs did not advance to Round Two.

Common Themes?

Reclamation.

If there is a commonality among the goaltenders Dubas has acquired, signed, or fostered, it is an unfortunate string of failures or struggles that preceded the transaction, a spike in success, then a return to the mean.

The goalies have largely been reclamation projects that Dubas’s staff have been able to help for a short period, but have been unable to salvage in the long term.

Murray was losing his starting job to Jarry in Pittsburgh and was traded to Ottawa, where two years into a hefty four-year, $25 million contract, Ottawa was happy to unload the goalie they previously thought might be their long-term answer. Murray wasn’t the answer in Toronto either, but seemingly like the others, had a surge, at least for a moment.

Campbell was never a No. 1 goalie with the LA Kings, but then had a surprising couple of seasons in a platoon with Andersen in Toronto. Like the others, his bump was short-lived, and after he left via free agency, he returned to his career norms in Edmonton.

Samsonov was once seen as the heir apparent to Braden Holtby with the Washington Capitals, but had essentially washed out in Washington before signing a one-year deal with Toronto.

With some irony, his goaltending decisions came full circle when he inked Jarry, who started what became the Dubas carousel by pushing past Murray. And now, Jarry has become a reclamation project for his original team.

Perhaps recently acquired 24-year-old Artus Silovs will break the Dubas cycle. Also, the Penguins currently have a few goaltending prospects who could emerge as something Dubas has never had: A young, reliable, homegrown starting goalie.

Or, prepare for a few more transitional goalies.

The post Bad Luck or Bad Choices? Dubas’s Long Struggle with Goalies appeared first on Pittsburgh Hockey Now.

Bad Luck or Bad Choices? Dubas’s Long Struggle with Goalies

Tags: