- Elliotte Friedman says rival teams suspected Colorado took a run at Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck
- The Hart and Vezina winner carries an $8.5 million cap hit through 2031, a brutal fit for a tight Avalanche cap sheet
- Read below for what a Hellebuyck deal would have cost Colorado and why Winnipeg would balk
The Colorado Avalanche might have taken a run at the best goalie in hockey.
Elliotte Friedman dropped the note on the final 32 Thoughts podcast episode of the season. Rival front offices, he said, believe Colorado kicked the tires on a Connor Hellebuyck trade before free agency opened.
“I had a couple of teams say to me they wondered if Colorado took a shot at Connor Hellebuyck. I don’t know how that could work. I don’t know what they would offer. There were a couple of teams that suspected the Avalanche kind of considered it.”
Nobody has confirmed Colorado actually picked up the phone. Friedman framed it as rival teams reading the tea leaves, not a deal that got anywhere close. That other clubs even floated the idea, though, says plenty about how the Avs think.
Hellebuyck signed the seven-year extension that locks him in through 2031:
The money is the whole problem. That $8.5 million cap hit would land on a roster already paying Nathan MacKinnon $12.6 million. Colorado did most of its offseason shopping early and has little room left to bolt a franchise goalie onto the books.
Then there is Winnipeg. The Jets and Avalanche share the Central Division, and shipping a Hart Trophy winner to a team you face four times a year is a hard sell. The Jets already turned down a Buffalo package built around the fourth overall pick, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Jack Quinn.
Take a look back at the night Hellebuyck picked up his Vezina hardware:
Colorado’s crease was not broken, either. Scott Wedgewood gave them 56 games with a .918 save percentage and a 2.12 goals-against average, and Mackenzie Blackwood held up fine behind him. Chris MacFarland does not need a hole in net to chase an upgrade, and a healthy Hellebuyck is exactly that.
The pairing stays a what-if. Hellebuyck is still a Jet, and the Avalanche are still trying to squeeze their cap sheet.
