With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason for a third consecutive year without a playoff appearance, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 55 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.

Starting with Noel Acciari and going on through to Philip Tomasino (regrettably, there is no Z on the payroll), every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.

This series is scheduled to be published Mondays through Saturdays leading up until June 23, four days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Puckpedia.)

Joel Blomqvist

Position: Goaltender

Catches: Left

Age: 23

Height: 6-foot-3

Weight: 200 pounds

2024-25 NHL statistics: 12 games, 4-9-1 record, 3.81 goals-against average, .885 save percentage, zero shutouts

2024-25 AHL regular season statistics: 18 games, 8-7-3 record, 2.84 goals-against average, .914 save percentage, one shutout

2024-25 AHL postseason statistics: One game, 0-1-0 record, 4.60 goals-against average, .885 save percentage, zero shutouts

Contract: In the second year of a three-year, entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $886,667. Pending restricted free agent in 2026

(Blomqvist does not require waivers to be assigned to a minor league affiliate.)

Acquired: Second-round draft pick (No. 52 overall), Oct. 7, 2020

This season: Nothing really went as planned with Joel Blomqvist in 2024-25. But it wasn’t necessarily all bad for him as he took his first steps as an NHLer.

When incumbent backup Alex Nedeljkovic suffered an undisclosed injury during the preseason, Blomqvist unexpectedly opened the season on the NHL roster behind starter Tristan Jarry.

And as Jarry struggled in the early stages of the season, coach Mike Sullivan displayed a fair amount of faith in Blomqvist by using him in eight of the first 17 games of the season.

Perhaps the most impressive performance by any Penguins goaltender in 2024-25 was offered by Blomqvist in a losing effort when bombarded by the powerful Edmonton Oilers during a 4-0 road loss. He valiantly stopped 46 of 50 shots while under duress most of the evening.

After Nedeljkovic healed up and Jarry returned from a conditioning assignment with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, Blomqvist was sent to Northeast Pennsylvania on Nov. 14 and remained there for two months.

Platooning with Filip Larsson in net, Blomqvist appeared in 12 contests over that span and posted a 6-4-2 record, a 2.93 goals-against average, .912 save percentage and one shutout.

When Jarry’s ongoing struggles reached a tipping point, he was waived on Jan. 14. After clearing, he was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton once again while Blomqvist was recalled as management expected to complete the season with the rookie as well as Nedeljkovic as a platoon.

But those aspirations never really materialized as envisioned as Blomqvist and Nedeljkovic struggled behind a weak defense. In his final seven NHL games of the season, Blomqvist had a 1-4-1 record, a 4.04 goals-against average and an .854 save percentage.

A particularly weak performance in a 6-5 home overtime loss to the Maple Leafs on March 3 in which he stopped only 27 of 33 shots prompted management to send Blomqvist back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the next day while recalling Jarry.

As it turned out, Blomqvist was dealing with an injury at the time of that transaction and was sidelined for the next five-plus weeks.

After getting into Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s lineup in three of the final five games of the regular season, Blomqvist entered the postseason as the AHL Penguins’ top goaltender.

But another undisclosed injury suffered in Game 1 of an Atlantic Division first-round playoff series against the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms brought his season to an end. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton lost the best-of-three series, 2-0.

The future: Blomqvist’s play at the NHL level definitely trended in the wrong direction after a promising start. But any evaluation of all of the Penguins goaltenders who appeared in an NHL contest in 2024-25 needs to be made with the understanding that the team’s overall defense was very poor.

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At the same time, Blomqvist has plenty of competition below the NHL roster with Larsson as well as Sergei Murashov, who enjoyed a wonderful first season in North America and appears to have leapfrogged Blomqvist as the franchise’s top goaltending prospect.

Things aren’t nearly as sunny for Blomqvist entering this offseason compared to the previous summer when he was coming off an All-Star season at the AHL level. Some rough results, injuries and the arrival of Murashov have clouded the forecast for him.

In his season-ending media availability, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas suggested there would be an open competition among all of the organization’s goaltenders to make the NHL roster in the upcoming training camp. However, given that Blomqvist is still on his entry-level contract, sending him back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton might just be a matter of sound asset management.

But even with all of those factors and some mixed results this season, Blomqvist is still very much part of this franchise’s future.