The biggest reason the New York Islanders are still playing hockey and haven’t been watching on TV since the first round was Tristan Jarry and his pathetic performance in round one. As a result the Penguins should be looking to move away from him and go in another direction. This is slightly problematic because of his 3.5M cap hit and the fact his value couldn’t be lower than it is perceived to be right now. Regardless, running back a Jarry/DeSmith combo is a non-starter for the 2021-22 season.

Goalie is the toughest position to nail down because of the volatility and lack of consistency even among the players who are thought of to be good. Paying more money is no guarantee to get the consistency you are looking for. A 1A/1B situation is probably your best bet unless you have Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, or a goaltender of that ilk. There are some goaltenders who will be available this offseason and the Penguins have the chance to acquire a new goalie via free agency. I’m going to sift through the names and give some thoughts.

Today’s first goaltender is Frederik Andersen. For years Andersen was a really good and consistent goaltender. The last two seasons have been mediocre to subpar. He lost his starting gig to Jack Campbell this year in Toronto due to injury/poor play. Any team looking to sign Andersen would be hoping he gets healthy over the summer and can return to form. It is a risk given he will be 32 next season, but as you’ll see moving forward many of these goalies will be in a similar age range because that’s what unrestricted free agency is.

Here is a look at Andersen’s player card



My two biggest concerns are his high-danger save percentage being so poor and his PK save percentage being the same. The Penguins penalty kill wasn’t great last year, but I believe the driving force was the save percentage. It doesn’t appear like Andersen will be helping in that regard. I also believe high-danger save percentage is a good indicator of a goaltender’s talent and right now Andersen is coming up empty. The Penguins need a goalie to steal a few saves when they have breakdowns. Not have somebody in the 0 percentile. For the Penguins to be at their best they need to be pushing play. Sometimes there will be breakdowns and you need your goalie to contribute to making difficult saves at times. Andersen’s HDSV% is a huge red flag for me here.

Andersen’s great starts and quality starts are also in shades of red indicating they aren’t where they need to be.

If this was Andersen from three or four years ago I would be really enticed to go after him in free agency. Alas, it is the Andersen in the year 2021 and I would focus on other goaltenders at this time. I would not look to sign him.

Thanks for reading!

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