I understand that there is an "optics" element to things. As in the team has to look like it's still competing and what team that is competing doesn't have a "name" goaltender, right? Except that's outdated thinking IMO. I expect crusty old brain damaged GMs to be silly about stuff like that... I was a little surprised at how many Penguins fans were all-in on bringing Jarry back at basically whatever he wanted. There are like maybe three-ish goaltenders you accommodate in this league at any given time these days. I feel like people are still using their 90s brains when it comes to goaltending.
There's context to that though. I think if you like hockey enough, you can come here to read and post and it will likely put you in the upper tier of "knowledge" concerning the Penguins. Then you have the casual fan who only really knows that "Jarry was an all-star, Jarry is our starting goalie". I mean, psh, why WOULDN'T you bring back our starting goalie!!?? ZOMG! But they lack that extra depth of knowledge and discussion that suggests Jarry is garbage and is not worth any higher paying longer-term deal.
One thing that has certainly added to the parity of the league is lack of quality goalies. There's only a handful a true #1 all-star goalies. Certainly NOT 32 of them. I would say there are 5 or so. As someone pointed out in another thread, if you want a playoff run you either need that all-star goalie (Shesty, Bobs, Vasi, etc) or you need to get damn lucky with a goalie on a hot streak (Bingington, Murray, Kreuper, etc). No one is making on-average goaltending unless you have McDavid. We might squeak in on a Jarry-Neds tandem but I think we'd need Blom or Murashov to come out of absolute nowhere and go on a heater for anything of significance to happen.