It's looking like the injury Tristan Jarry suffered in the first period of Monday's Winter Classic in Boston may be serious enough to keep him sidelined for the Penguins' road trip out west this week.
The Penguins on Tuesday afternoon recalled goaltender Dustin Tokarski from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Tokarski, 33, ranks in the top five in both goals-against average (2.22) and save percentage (.926) in the AHL this season.
To clear a roster spot for the Tokarski recall, the Penguins moved Kris Letang to the non-roster designation while he remains away from the team on personal leave following the death of his father this weekend.
Jarry stopped all eight shots he faced at Fenway Park on Monday before exiting the game with 4:30 left in the first period with a lower-body injury. It's not clear what the injury is exactly or how he may have suffered it, but he was clearly uncomfortable and moving awkwardly for the last couple of saves he made before he exited the game. The Penguins had a travel day on Tuesday, so there hasn't yet been an opportunity for an update on Jarry. The team is scheduled to practice in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.
Tokarski has spent this season splitting the starts with goaltending prospect Filip Lindberg, with Tokarski getting the edge and extra start if there's a three-in-three weekend. Lindberg suffered an undisclosed lower-body injury prior to the holiday break and remains sidelined on a week-to-week basis, so he was not an option for a recall even if he had been the better of the two goaltenders this season. The only other NHL-contracted goaltender in the system is rookie Taylor Gauthier, who started the season in Wheeling and was only recalled after Lindberg's injury. Gauthier has played in one AHL game on New Year's Eve, stopping 29 of 30 shots in a win.
This is the first recall to Pittsburgh for Tokarski, who is in his second stint in the Penguins' organization after signing a one-year, one-way contract this summer. When Tokarski last signed with the Penguins in 2019, he had turned down NHL contracts elsewhere for an AHL contract with Wilkes-Barre, a deal that carried with it an invite to the main training camp. At the time, the Penguins had Matt Murray and Casey DeSmith returning from the year prior, and a young Jarry ready to make the jump from the AHL to a role in the NHL.
The thinking at the time was that it seemed unlikely DeSmith would be around much longer. It was his first year of waivers-eligibility, and he was coming off of a successful season as a backup that saw him play 36 games. With Murray and Jarry looking like the tandem for Pittsburgh, the Penguins could have either traded DeSmith or tried to sneak him down to the minors on waivers. It seemed unlikely that he would clear, given that he was a proven capable backup at the NHL level. DeSmith, though, ended up clearing waivers that year. He took on the role of Wilkes-Barre's starter, and Tokarski shared the backup role with Emil Larmi. He never got his NHL deal with Pittsburgh that season.
"Without hiding it, there was some belief that it would be tough (to keep DeSmith) whether it was a trade or waiver pickup," Tokarski told me at training camp this season. "But with sports, you never know. It never happened. And actually, there were no injuries that year. So there wasn't a call up or any need to sign me to that deal. But it's different management now, and I'm excited to be here. They're willing to commit to me and make me part of the group. I'm excited."
Tokarski spent the two years between stints with the Penguins in the Sabres organization. He split the NHL job with Craig Anderson last season and backstopped a struggling Sabres team for 29 games. Tokarski had the best save percentage of any of the Sabres goaltenders who played in at least 10 games that season at .899, and he had a goals-against average of 3.27.
Tokarski had an impressive showing in training camp this year, pitching shutouts in both of his training camp scrimmages. He only played in one preseason game and stopped 27 of 32 shots in the second of the two split-squad games against the Blue Jackets. That was the game in which the Penguins sent a squad of mostly minor-leaguers and prospects to Columbus, while the Blue Jackets dressed many of their NHL regulars.
Tokarski is waivers-eligible. He can play up to 10 games or spend up to 30 days on the active roster (whatever comes first) before he would need waivers to be sent back down again.
