Joel Blomqvist is ready to make his NHL case.
A full year of North American hockey under his belt has set expectations even higher for Joel Blomqvist after a strong season in the AHL and perhaps puts him on the verge of making the leap to the NHL sooner rather than later.
Graduates and departed players from last year’s list
The best of the rest
#25: Raivis Ansons
#24: Kirill Tankov
#23: Isaac Belliveau
#22: Taylor Gauthier
#21: Chase Pietila
#20: Emil Jarventie
#19: Kalle Kangas
#18: Joona Vaisanen
#17: Filip Kral
#16: Mac Swanson
#15: Jonathan Gruden
#14: Cruz Lucius
#13: Emil Pieniniemi
#12: John Ludvig
#11: Mikhail Ilyin
#10: Harrison Brunicke
#9: Tristan Broz
#8: Sam Poulin
#7: Tanner Howe
#6: Vasily Ponomarev
#5: Ville Koivunen
#4 Sergei Musharov
#3: Owen Pickering
It feels like only a matter of time before the Joel Blomqvist-era begins in Pittsburgh, but when exactly he kicks down that door to the NHL still remains to be seen. The Penguins top goalie prospect will begin another season in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and his path to the NHL looks muddied with two goalies in front of him on multi-year contracts.
Last season was the first full professional season in North America for Blomqvist and he will be looking to build off an impressive 2023-24 where he posted a 25-12-6 record along with a .921 save percentage and 2.16 goals against. His strong play earned him an AHL All-Star selection and he was briefly called up to Penguins but only as an injury backup for one game.
Joel Blomqvist mixtape 2023-24. I tried to include a selection of saves that I thought did well to highlight his various strengths in goal. Little bit of everything here. A primer for those unfamiliar with his work. pic.twitter.com/dXDLRByopS
— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) April 22, 2024
Prior to coming over full time, Blomqvist spent his early development years playing in the professional ranks of his home country Finland. He made two brief appearances with the Baby Pens in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and was a regular participant in developments camps.
Blomqvist will spend another season developing his game in the AHL, but the next logical step is for him in the long term is the NHL. A step which doesn’t seem too far off, but is currently hindered by Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic.
It doesn’t seem the Penguins front office is too worried about Blomqvist spending more time honing his craft in the minors, but in an interview this summer, Kyle Dubas did state that he expects Blomqvist to push for an NHL spot in 2024-25 if the Penguins goalie struggles continue, there is a real possibility Blomqvist is given his shot.
There is some competition building behind Blomqvist with the arrival of Sergei Murashov coming over from Russia and Taylor Gauthier, but Murashov is likely still a few years behind Blomqvist in terms of development and Gauthier isn’t nearly as highly rated as Blomqvist though he will likely be competing for AHL ice-time this season.
In the clip above posted by Penguins writer Jesse Marshall, he goes on to note that one of the knocks on Blomqvist is his knack for giving up juicy rebounds, a trait you will notice when watching the video. That is however one of the few negatives Marshall points out in his analysis of Blomqvist, and overall his outlook on the goalie is very positive.
Unless an injury occurs between now and the regular season, or Dubas pulls off a shock trade in that same time frame, in all likelihood Blomqvist will start the 2024-25 season down in the AHL with the Baby Pens and all indications point to the Penguins being fine with that.
However, winds can shift quickly and if the Penguins struggle out of the gate and the goaltending is underwater they could very well turn to Blomqvist to be the answer, because either way, he all signs seems to be trending to him being the Penguins future No. 1 between the pipes, it’s just a matter of “when” rather than “if” at this point.
