NHL free agency 2023: Tristan Jarry returns to Penguins on 5-year deal

The Pittsburgh Penguins have taken the top goaltender off the free-agent market by signing Tristan Jarry to a five-year contract.

Jarry has spent his entire seven-year NHL career in Pittsburgh, and he'll remain with the team through his age-32 season on a deal with average annual value of $5.375 million. The veteran is coming off a middling campaign by his standards as he posted a .909 save percentage and 2.90 goals-against average — but he's been one of the NHL's most reliable goaltenders in recent years.

Since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, he ranks ninth in games played (177) and 10th in save percentage among goalies with at least 100 appearances (.915). His save percentage hasn't dipped below .909 in any of the last four seasons.

As of the signing, Jarry now has the 12th-highest cap hit among all NHL goaltenders, which is in line with his statistical performance.

The netminder likely had plenty of suitors around the NHL, but the Penguins opted to use a great deal of their remaining cap space to retain him. Pittsburgh is just $933K under the cap after re-signing Jarry, inking free-agent defenceman Ryan Graves, and adding veteran winger Reilly Smith earlier in the week.

Pittsburgh entered the season with plenty of cap space, but those three additions will cost $14.875 million in 2023-24. Each of the three players are signed for at least two seasons, which means the trio will be critical to the Penguins' chances of maximizing the end of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang's careers.

The Penguins failed to make the playoffs in 2022-23, and they're hoping the first season of the Kyle Dubas era will yield a stronger result. Jarry's ability to bring some stability between the pipes should make a strong contribution towards that goal in 2023-24 and beyond.