The Friday Four is a collection of thoughts and information on some intriguing storylines from around the NHL. On deck this week is:
• After acquiring Silovs, do Pens push to move Jarry?
• Ducks make a good bet on Dostal
• Vegas may need to add a better partner for Hill
• Greaves deserves a shot at Blue Jackets’ crease
Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh Penguins
For any teams looking to upgrade their goaltending, the options are slim at this point. The best goalies left in free agency are veterans better served as backups, which means the trade route is the only real option to substantially improve the position. Even then, there aren’t that many teams looking for help between the pipes and very few goalies that would make sense in a trade. The Edmonton Oilers could be one team in the market for a netminder, as they continue to ponder whether bringing back Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard for another season is the best path forward. It’s a tricky call; the Oilers were able to reach the Cup Final in back-to-back years with the duo, but a lot of that success was often in spite of the goaltending and not because of it.
Edmonton has very minimal cap space, so if they were going to go through the cap gymnastics it would take to bring someone in, they’d have to be reasonably sure the addition was indeed going to be an upgrade on what they currently have. There’s been a lot of chatter about whether someone like Tristan Jarry, who played his junior hockey in Edmonton, would make sense and the Oilers would obviously be taking a big leap of faith by adding him. He’s coming off a horrendous season, which included a demotion to the AHL after he cleared waivers. The 30-year-old finished with a save percentage of .893 and a goals against average of over three, for a Pittsburgh squad that missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
As risky as it would be to bring Jarry in, the above reasons may also make it the perfect time to acquire him. You’d be buying low and the return wouldn’t be astronomical for a goaltender coming off a season like Jarry had. Plus, if the Pens ate some of the cap hit, you could potentially get Jarry’s number down to around the $3 million range. That brings some of the risk down and makes the remaining years of the deal more palatable.
With the Penguins adding Arturs Silovs recently, they could theoretically part with Jarry heading into a season where the goal is probably more geared towards having the best odds to draft Gavin McKenna than it is making the playoffs. Pittsburgh should be trying to get the number one pick next summer and even as bad of a season as it was for Jarry, he’s still probably their best option in net. Removing him and going with a tandem of Silovs and Joel Blomqvist likely gives them a better chance at winning the draft lottery.
Now, the question the Oilers have to ask themselves is would Jarry actually be an upgrade to what they’ve been dealing with? If you’re basing it on last year’s numbers, the answer is clearly no. Jarry wasn’t very good at all, but if you’re the Oilers looking at the glass half full, it was a small sample size. The veteran only appeared in 36 games last season and half of those games were actually quality starts (outings where he had a save percentage over .900). That included a run of nine quality starts in his final 14 games on the campaign. The issue was when Jarry was bad, he was really bad. He had 10 games where he allowed four or more goals and the puck was going in early and often. Those poor outings really skewed and put a dent in his overall numbers, but again, it was a small sample size. Jarry has played close to 300 games in his career and his numbers have been good for the majority of them.
The hope would have to be that Jarry would look closer to the goalie he was prior to last season on a better team. Even with last season’s debacle, Jarry still owns a .909 career save percentage and a 152-97-31 record. To put that in perspective, Jarry’s career mark is still higher than the league average save percentage in each of the past five seasons. Not to mention, Pittsburgh didn’t give him much help in 2024-25 either. The Pens weren’t a very good defensive team, ranking 26th in high-danger chances allowed. Conversely, the Oilers were fourth best in that category a year ago, giving up 134 fewer high-danger chances than the Pens.
It’s reasonable to assume Jarry would fare better in Edmonton than he did last year in Pittsburgh and the bar for improvement is considerably low. Skinner and Pickard combined for an .888 save percentage in the playoffs last season, so bettering that should be an achievable task for Jarry, who has proven to be much better than that for most of his career.
This probably comes down to acquisition cost and how much of Jarry’s cap hit Pittsburgh would be willing to retain. If the Penguins are going to eat two or three million and the Oilers don’t have to give up much to add Jarry, the potential reward may be worth it. Having a tandem of Skinner and Jarry for a combined cap hit of under $6 million is perfectly reasonable in a rising cap world. At Jarry’s current price, though, it would be too much risk for the Oilers to take on.
Ultimately, if the Oilers do want to improve their goaltending, Jarry might be one of the only realistic options available at this point, even if it is a big roll of the dice.
The Anaheim Ducks have had a busy off-season, but perhaps no move was more important than locking up Lukas Dostal for the foreseeable future. Anaheim recently inked Dostal to a five-year deal with an AAV of $6.5 million, buying a few UFA years in the process.
At first glance, Dostal’s numbers don’t look overly impressive, though that doesn’t tell the whole story about how good he’s been for the Ducks. The 25-year-old has only played 121 games and has save percentages of .902 and .903, respectively, in his first two full seasons in the NHL. Those are very average numbers for an NHL goaltender, but given the conditions Dostal has dealt with in his brief career, he’s actually performed quite well.
Anaheim has been a poor defensive team for much of his tenure, and in 2024-25, it gave up 847 high-danger chances against, which was more than anyone in the league. The year prior, the Ducks were only marginally better, finishing 26th. Despite not getting much help in front of him, Dostal posted a stellar 14.3 goals saved above expected last season and proved he could thrive in a difficult spot. In fact, Dostal started the year on a torrid pace, posting a .945 save percentage in October, recording seven quality starts in eight appearances.
That came while John Gibson missed the first month of the season due to injury, which should inform the Ducks that Dostal can handle a heavy workload and is at his best when he’s playing regularly and staying in a rhythm. With Gibson now gone, there is little competition for Dostal in the Anaheim crease, so expect him to play a lot more in 2025-26. The Ducks wouldn’t have moved Gibson unless they had full confidence in Dostal, who could be just scratching the surface of what he’s capable of.
Adin Hill, Vegas Golden Knights
Vegas got its biggest piece of business out of the way early this summer when it added Mitch Marner, but there are still other needs to address.
One of which could be in goal, where Ilya Samsonov doesn’t appear to be returning as Adin Hill’s backup and is still a free agent. Currently, Akira Schmid is the only real option behind Hill, which could pose a couple of issues. First, Schmid is relatively inexperienced with only 48 career appearances to his credit and some inconsistent numbers. Should Hill get injured, relying on Schmid for any significant amount of time would be risky.
The other concern would be how much can the Golden Knights lean on Hill? He played 50 games for the first time in his career last season and his numbers really fell off in the playoffs. The 29-year-old finished with an .887 save percentage in the postseason and struggled specifically in the series against the Edmonton Oilers, allowing at least three goals in every game but one. Prior to last year’s 50 games, Hill’s career high in appearances in any one season was 35. He really benefited from having a partner like Logan Thompson, where the two could share starts more evenly.
It seems like it would be in Vegas’s best interest to add a more reliable partner for Hill to keep him fresher when the games matter most. That won’t be easy, given the options available and someone like the aforementioned Jarry, even with retention, would be out of their price range based on their cap situation. The other consideration for Vegas is that its defence, once arguably the deepest in the league, won’t be as formidable in 2025-26. Alex Pietrangelo’s injury and the loss of Nic Hague will hurt the unit and put more pressure on the goaltending to bail them out here and there.
Hill is signed for the next six seasons at more than $6 million per year, so he is going to have to deliver on that investment and return closer to the goalie he was when Vegas won the Cup. The Golden Knights should have an advantage in net over a team like the Oilers in the playoffs with Hill, but that didn’t turn out to be the case this past season. Dialling back Hill’s workload may be the key to helping him regain his form.
Jet Greaves, Columbus Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets fell just short of the playoffs last season, though it wasn’t for lack of trying from goaltender Jet Greaves.
After being called up late in the year, Greaves went 5-0-0 with a .975 save percentage to close out the campaign, allowing only four total goals in those five starts. Sure, it was a very small sample size, but Greaves continues to shine every time he gets an opportunity for the Blue Jackets and he may very well get a much longer look in 2025-26.
Columbus has struggled between the pipes for a number of years, as Elvis Merzlikins has now posted a save percentage below .900 for three consecutive seasons. There was some optimism around Daniil Tarasov at one point, but he also struggled mightily in 2024-25, finishing with a .881 save percentage before being shipped to the Florida Panthers earlier this summer. That gives Greaves an opportunity to compete with Merzlikins for playing time and if he’s even half as good as he showed late last year, he’ll have a good chance to earn plenty of starts.
It’s fair to wonder where the Blue Jackets would’ve ended up last season with even average goaltending. Columbus had a top-10 offence, but couldn’t keep the puck out of its net, ranking 22nd overall in team save percentage. When you finish just two points short of the postseason, it’s no secret how big of a difference an extra save here and there would’ve made. Now if Greaves can continue his strong play on one of the league’s most exciting young teams, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Blue Jackets in the playoffs next spring.
