Will Penguins goalie coaching changes pay off for Tristan Jarry?

Things were very different the first time Andy Chiodo reported to a training camp with the Penguins.

In the late summer of 2003, he was a 20-year-old goaltender whom the Penguins drafted in the seventh round of that spring’s draft. As for the team, it was two years removed from trading away franchise icon Jaromir Jagr and two years away from drafting a teenager from Nova Scotia named Sidney Crosby.

Practices were staged at the spartan Southpointe facility in Canonsburg.

And there was only one goaltending coach, Gilles Meloche.

“He was awesome,” said Chiodo, now 38. “I loved him. Whenever he was around, it was just great to be around him.”

At the turn of the century, Meloche was around … just about everywhere.

He worked with goaltenders in Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Wheeling and just about any other corner of North America the franchise had a prospect at that position. Plus, he served as a scout.

“He would come into (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) from time to time,” said Chiodo, who spent the bulk of his time with the organization as a player in American Hockey League. “He was in and out. … Whether it was a week here and there.”

Today, the Penguins practice in a state-of-the-art building located in Cranberry. Crosby is closer to the end than the beginning of his nonpareil existence as an NHL-er. And Chiodo is the Penguins’ goaltending coach.

He’s one of three of them, to be precise.

After Chiodo was promoted from the franchise’s goaltending development coaching role to NHL goaltending coach in August, he was tasked, in part, with finding his replacement. Instead of making one hire, the team made two, installing Charles Grant and Kain Tisi in early September.

Tisi primarily will work with the team’s goaltenders with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and Grant will operate out of Wheeling. Both also will oversee the development of the organization’s other goaltending prospects, including those in Europe, albeit in a remote fashion. They also will scout the position at the professional and amateur levels.

The Penguins aren’t the first team to place a greater emphasis on the position and those who coach it. And they’re certainly not the gaudiest about it.

In December, the Florida Panthers established their haughtily titled “Goaltending Excellence Department,” with four staffers, including former All-Star goaltender Roberto Luongo.

A generation or two ago, even having one coach in a full-time capacity was a luxury. Today, many teams employ groups of coaches specific to one position unlike any other on the ice.

“The goaltending position has evolved in how it’s played and how it’s coached probably more so than any other position in sports,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “Maybe the only other position that might rival it might be pitching in baseball. … The goaltending position has evolved a lot. It’s a technical position in how it’s played. There are a lot of subtleties to the position that I think are really important as far as details are concerned … positioning and things of that nature that are so critically important to set goalies up for success.

“Then there is the human element of coaching the goaltending position. That arguably is every bit as important as the technical side in how goaltenders manage the stress and the anxiety of the positions, how they deal with pressure, how they handle the media and all of the noise that goes around pro sports. These players are human beings, and they have emotions. So the human element, I think, of the goaltending coach is every bit important. It’s the only position in hockey that has a dedicated coach associated with it. That speaks to the importance of the position but also how the position has evolved.”

The Penguins went through an evolution of sorts this summer after starter Tristan Jarry struggled badly during the team’s first-round loss to the New York Islanders last postseason. Failing to find any appetizing options through free agency or trades for a new goaltender, they fired previous goaltending coach Mike Buckley and promoted Chiodo from the development role.

“We just felt we needed a change,” said general manager Ron Hextall, himself an all-star goaltender in the 1980s and 1990s. “Obviously, we had Andy sitting right there. With his experience and knowledge of the organization and the goaltenders, he was, in the end, the right guy.”

Chiodo isn’t a stranger to Jarry or backup Casey DeSmith. Hired as goaltending development coach in 2018, he worked extensively with Jarry and DeSmith with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

“I worked with Andy in Wilkes,” Jarry said. “It’s just the same. We’re trying to adapt to each other and learn off each other. … He’s going to help me where he can. I’m going to try to take in as much as I can just from having a different point of view from what we had last year.”

Even with that previous interaction, developing a full level of trust remains a work in progress as the season is about to open. Both goaltenders refer to Chiodo as “Andy” when speaking about him with media. In regards to Buckley, it was simply “Buck.”

New Penguins goaltending coach Andy Chiodo working with Tristan Jarry and Alex D’Orio: pic.twitter.com/i6FFBSVC17

— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) September 25, 2021

“Trust is not given,” Chiodo said. “It’s earned. It takes some time. But when everyone’s intentions are aligned, and there’s an understanding that we all have — you can tell when someone truly cares, and someone has your best interests at heart — the athlete feels that. That trust is something that is there, and you keep building upon it. As you have success together, as you have little moments here and there that push the needle in the right direction, that trust just continues to build. It’s a process that is ongoing. We all have a real good foundation with one another. There’s definitely trust there on both sides. I trust them. I’d like to think, and I’m quite confident, that they trust me.”

The Penguins are trusting Chiodo will be able to correct the malfunctions Jarry displayed this past spring.

“He’s a super-talented guy,” Chiodo said. “He cares, he’s competitive. He wants to do well. He’s got everything he needs inside of him. It’s about continuing to feed those strengths and continue to refine his game. He’s got a good foundation. There’s a foundation that he believes in. It’s about feeding that foundation and staying true to what makes him successful. There’s a lot of positives in his game. There’s a lot of positives to him in every aspect. It’s about really staying true to those things and looking for ways to refine. He doesn’t need fixing. He’s been a successful guy, he’s a smart guy and he’s a hard-working guy. He’s got a lot of talent and skill.”

Penguins management, under former general manager Ray Shero, envisioned Jarry one day could become the franchise’s top goaltender when he was selected in the second round of the 2013 draft. And those hopes were validated, under another former general manager in Jim Rutherford, during the 2019-20 season when he was selected as an All-Star.

Now under the watch of Hextall, the franchise has opted to stick with Jarry, even after his meltdown against the Islanders.

A rebound for a goaltender following such a wretched postseason vanquishment isn’t unprecedented. Especially with this franchise.

Former Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, the first overall pick of the 2003 draft, appeared to have his career wash out in the 2013 playoffs. After the Penguins named Mike Bales as goaltending coach during the 2013 offseason, Fleury changed his trajectory and since then, he has all but secured his future entry into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The other goaltender the Penguins selected the 2003 draft sees a similar path for Jarry to take.

“There’s ebbs and flows to games, to seasons, to parts of players of careers,” Chiodo said. “These are all learning experiences that athletes go through. When things work and when things don’t work out exactly the way you want it, there’s learning experiences to be taken from it. Tristan’s no different. You line up ten goalies in a row, and chances are they’ve all experienced something similar at some point in their career. That’s the nature of the position. That’s the nature of the game.

“It’s very important that when you have success, you learn from what makes you successful and you stay true to those things. If there’s moments that don’t go your way, same thing. You look at where you can grow. … There’s so much good in Tristan’s game. There’s been so much good in his career so far. He’s going to just keep building and keep growing. Like so many goaltenders, these ebbs and flows are part of the career, part of the day-to-day.”

A few days after being eliminated by the Islanders last spring, Jarry vowed, “I will be better next year.”

The Penguins are betting the changes they made among those who oversee the position will help Jarry make good on that promise.

“There’s so much good in Tristan’s game,” Chiodo said. “There’s been so much good in his career so far. He’s going to just keep building and keep growing.”

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