Eric Comrie was handed a huge opportunity to help the Winnipeg Jets through a difficult stretch, but he’s failed to make good on it. His tenure as the starter has been nothing less than disastrous.
Comrie Crumbling in Jets’ Crease
Comrie’s play since he was thrust into the number-one role after Connor Hellebuyck’s arthroscopic knee surgery hasn’t been nearly good enough to give the team a chance to win consistently. He hasn’t even been close to league average with an ugly a 2-7-1 record, 3.71 goals against average, .874 save percentage (SV%), and a negative-7.02 goals saved above expected.
He has allowed four-plus goals in five of 10 starts, only posted a SV% above .900 four times, and has been pulled twice (and probably should have been pulled a couple more).
His past three games have been especially poor — four goals allowed on 16 shots against the Edmonton Oilers and yanked after the first in a 6-2 loss, four goals allowed on 19 shots against the Dallas Stars in a 4-3 loss, and five goals allowed on 23 shots against the Boston Bruins in a 6-3 loss.
He clearly cannot handle the workload — with 10 starts in 11 games, one could argue head coach Scott Arniel has ridden him too hard in an already-condensed season and should have given Thomas Milic and now-backup Domenic DiVincentiis more time — and he looks not only exhausted, but shell-shocked. He has not been economical in his lateral movement, has spit out too many rebounds to high-danger areas, has made himself look small, and has been caught scrambling around wildly or overcommitting far too often.
Even though Comrie is far from the Jets’ only problem — their defensive structure has been suspect, their secondary scoring is nonexistent, and their special teams are tanking — his allowing too many soft goals and goals in bunches are big problems nonetheless. Consider the past two losses to the Bruins and Stars, especially — the Jets outplayed both opponents, scored seven goals, and even mediocre goaltending would have been enough to win, but Comrie looked completely lost. A sub .800 SV% isn’t good enough for any team on any night.
This Was Inevitable
Comrie is a serviceable backup, but clearly cannot handle the pressure that comes with being the undisputed number one who may be depended on to steal a game or two. Having poor goaltending is not something the Jets are used to with Hellebuyck being a three-time Vezina winner and the reigning Hart Trophy winner, and it’s not something they can survive right now.
The only other time Comrie was tapped to be “the guy” — in 2022-23 with the Buffalo Sabres in the first season of a two-year deal — the script was similar. The experiment went so badly the team had to pivot away from him by mid November.
Jets Paying the Price for Not Adding Veteran Goalie
Immediately after Hellebuyck’s surgery, this author wrote an op-ed that the Jets should consider signing Chris Driedger, a veteran Winnipeg-born goaltender who had just left his Kontinental Hockey League team. They didn’t add him, of course, and this author got a number of comments on social media from Jets fans that there was no “crease crisis” like he claimed and that the team would be just fine with Comrie for four-to-six weeks.
While Driedger would not have been a silver bullet considering the Jets’ many issues outside of goaltending, one has to wonder if he — or some other experienced netminder — could have helped keep them afloat. It’s hard to image he or someone else would have done worse.
Related: Jets Should Consider Reuniting With Hometown Goalie Driedger During Crease Crisis
Unlike what the commenters claimed, the Jets not fine. Far from it. In fact, at 14-15-1, they are below .500 for the first time since entering play Nov. 7, 2023, more than two years ago and before the Arniel era even begun. How far last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners have fallen, and how quickly.
While Hellebuyck has been practicing this week and could play before Christmas, his return may be too late. This awful stretch has made it look more and more inevitable Winnipeg will be participating in the 2026 Lottery Draft rather than the playoffs.
