Eric Comrie had a huge opportunity to help the Winnipeg Jets through a tough stretch, but he failed to make the most of it. His tenure as a starter was nothing short of disastrous.
Comrie crumbles in the Jets crease
Comrie’s play since being given the number one role following Connor Hellebuyck’s arthroscopic knee surgery has not 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 2-7-1 record, 3.71 goals against average, .874 save percentage (SV%) and a negative 7.02 goals above expectation rate.
He has allowed more than four goals in five of 10 starts, posted an SV% above .900 just four times, and was pulled twice (and probably should have been pulled a few more times).
His last three games have been particularly bad: four goals allowed on 16 shots against the Edmonton Oilers and pulled 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 can’t handle the workload. With 10 starts in 11 games, you could argue that head coach Scott Arniel ran him too hard in an already short season and should have given Thomas Milic and now backup Domenic DiVincentiis more time. And he looks not only exhausted, but shocked. He has not been economical in his lateral movements, has spit too many rebounds into high-danger areas, has made himself look small and has been caught wandering wildly or overcommitting far too often.
Even though Comrie is far from the Jets’ only problem – their defensive structure is suspect, their secondary scoring non-existent and their special teams tanking – allowing too many soft goals and goals in bunches are major problems nonetheless. In particular, think about the past two losses to the Bruins and the Stars: the Jets defeated both opponents, scored seven goals and even mediocre goaltending would have been enough to win, but Comrie seemed completely lost. An SV% of less than .800 is not good enough for any team on a night.
This was inevitable
Comrie is a serviceable backup, but clearly can’t handle the pressure that comes with being the undisputed number one who can be expected to steal a game or two. Having poor goaltending isn’t something the Jets are used to, as Hellebuyck is 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 named “the guy” — in 2022-23 with the Buffalo Sabers in the first season of a two-year deal — the script was similar. The experiment went so poorly that the team had to move on from him in mid-November.
Jets are paying the price for not adding a veteran goalie
Immediately after Hellebuyck’s surgery, this author wrote an op-ed saying the Jets should consider signing Chris Driedger, a veteran goaltender from Winnipeg who had just left his Kontinental Hockey League team. They didn’t add him, of course, and this author received a number of comments from Jets fans on social media that there was no “crease crisis” as he claimed and that the team would be fine with Comrie for four to six weeks.
While Driedger wouldn’t have been a panacea given the Jets’ many issues outside of goaltending, you have to wonder if he — or another veteran netminder — could have helped keep them afloat. It’s hard to imagine that he or anyone else could have done worse.
Related: Jets should consider reuniting with hometown goalie amid crease crisis
Contrary to what the commentators claimed, the Jets were not okay. Far from it. In fact, they are below .500 at 14-15-1 for the first time since entering the game on November 7, 2023, more than two years ago and before the Arniel era even began. How far last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners have fallen, and how quickly.
Although Hellebuyck has trained this week and could play before Christmas, his return may be too late. This awful stretch makes it seem increasingly inevitable that Winnipeg will enter the 2026 Lottery Draft instead of the playoffs.
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