With Silovs Acquisition, Penguins’ Goaltending Situation Just Got More Complicated

On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired goaltender Arturs Silovs from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for forward Chase Stillman and a 2027 fourth-round draft pick.

This move comes less than two weeks after the Penguins sent netminder Alex Nedeljkovic to the San Jose Sharks in a trade for a 2028 third-round pick. When that trade happened, it appeared that the Penguins were finally aiming to address their organizational goaltending logjam in order to give some younger guys their chance to stick on the NHL roster.

Now, the acquisition of Silovs – who is signed through the end of the 2025-26 season at $850,000 – once again, complicates things.

Silovs, 24, is still pretty young and relatively inexperienced at the NHL level. He appeared in 10 NHL games for Vancouver in 2024-25, posting an .861 save percentage and a 3.65 goals-against average. And, for his career, he is 8-8-2 in 19 appearances with an .880 save percentage and a 3.13 goals-against average.

While his NHL numbers might not jump out on the stats sheet, it’s his ability to step up in big games that has shone through. In the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs for the Abbotsford Canucks – Vancouver’s AHL affiliate – Silovs went 16-7-0 with five shutouts, a .931 save percentage, and 2.01 goals-against average, leading Abbotsford to its first-ever Calder Cup championship and taking home AHL playoff MVP honors at the end of it all.

In other words, the Penguins acquired a young goaltender much like some of the prospects they already have in their system in Joel Blomqvist, Taylor Gauthier, Filip Larsson, and Sergei Murashov: a netminder with potential that has seen stretches of inconsistency but could be a big part of the NHL roster looking ahead.

While more goaltending depth certainly isn’t a bad thing for the Penguins – as they have struggled in that department for the better part of the last decade – it also raises questions about what their plan between the pipes is heading into the 2025-26 season.

Although the Penguins carried three goaltenders for a near-month-long stretch early last season, it’s unlikely that will be the case barring injury concerns. Gauthier, 24, and Larsson, 26, are both signed to AHL contracts, while Blomqvist, 23, and Murashov, 21, are both signed to their entry-level contracts.

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The latter two are the two goaltending prospects with the most promise for the Penguins, but both Larsson and Gauthier have shown flashes of brilliance in the Penguins’ system. Larsson started last season in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a high note, but an injury in the back half of the season set him back, and he struggled in the games to follow. Gauthier took home ECHL Goaltender of the Year honors in 2023-24 with a .923 save percentage and 2.23 goals-against average only to best those numbers last season, as he finished with a .928 save percentage and a 2.06 goals-against average.

Gauthier was rewarded with an AHL contract for the 2025-26 season, and Larsson has one year remaining on his two-way contract. Blomqvist will be an RFA following the 2025-26 season, and Murashov is signed through 2026-27.

And all of the conjecture concerning prospects doesn’t even account for Tristan Jarry, who is still committed to the Penguins for three more years at $5.375 million and who has struggled to find consistency over the last two seasons for Pittsburgh.

BREAKING: Abbotsford Canucks Win 2025 Calder Cup After a magical playoff run filled with standout performances, the Abbotsford Canucks have officially won the 2025 Calder Cup. This is Abbotsford’s first Calder Cup win in franchise history and their first time making it out of the second round since their inaugural season in 2021. They clinched the Calder Cup after a 3–2 Game 6 win against the Charlotte Checkers in the Calder Cup Finals. The last time the Vancouver Canucks’ AHL affiliate made it to the Calder Cup Finals was when the Utica Comets did so in 2015.

So, Silovs’s acquisition begs the question of whether or not the Penguins have another move up their sleeve.

Of course, Silovs is – by no means – a negative acquisition. He has upside, and he should have a chance to prove he belongs at the NHL level. But his presence also creates a logjam at the AHL level, as all four of the aforementioned goaltenders should probably be playing against AHL-level competition instead of getting buried in the ECHL.

Unless the Penguins either plan to move on from Jarry at some point before the season starts or package one of their young goaltending prospects in a potential trade, this move doesn’t seem to make much sense. While a good, low-risk move in terms of value, it will only risk stunting the development of four other goaltending prospects if a subsequent move isn’t made to clear that logjam again.

There is a lot of trade speculation surrounding three Penguins in Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell, and Bryan Rust. It’s conceivable to think that the Penguins could package one of their young goaltenders in a larger trade involving one of those players to net a higher return – and, possibly, net a young NHL player in return, which is what GM and POHO Kyle Dubas has suggested is a priority.

Or, maybe, a team like the Edmonton Oilers would poke around at Jarry for the right price, and the Penguins are exploring that option.

Whatever the case may be, if the Penguins truly want to look ahead to the next generation and the future of this franchise, they would be wise not to hold back any of their young goaltenders from playing at the level they should be playing at. There was a path to that happening prior to the Silovs trade.

Now, the path just got a bit murkier. And it’s up to Dubas and the Penguins to navigate that path forward for the 2025-26 season.

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