- Elliotte Friedman says talk of Connor Hellebuyck returning to the Jets is growing
- David Pagnotta hears the Winnipeg locker room may not welcome him back
- Read below for the money, the contract and the Yashin precedent
Connor Hellebuyck might actually walk back into the Jets’ locker room.
And almost nobody involved seems to want it. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman talked about the situation on Monday’s 32 Thoughts podcast and said the buzz is real.
“There’s starting to become a lot of talk about Hellebuyck potentially coming back,” Friedman said. He quickly added that he doesn’t think “anybody involved here wants that.”
Insider David Pagnotta heard something similar, per Yahoo Sports. He was asked on Hello Hockey about the whispers that Hellebuyck is changing his stance.
“It wouldn’t shock me if this goes beyond (just) conversation of him returning to Winnipeg to join his team while still wanting a trade a la Dylan Larkin,” Pagnotta said.
Pagnotta also said the room has moved on. “The early indication is that the locker room just wants to keep rolling with what they’ve got,” he said. Larkin is the obvious comparison, and we covered his return to Detroit while his trade request stays alive.
The paycheck is part of it. Hellebuyck is suspended for missing training camp, so he gets nothing while he sits. The fan-run Hellebucks tracker has him giving up roughly $38,660 a day, and the total has passed $530,000.
Pagnotta explained how that wears on a player. “You start to see the paychecks aren’t coming in, and the family’s saying, ‘What’s going on?’, and everything starts to mount,” he said.
There’s a contract problem too. Friedman raised the possibility that a long absence could leave Hellebuyck with no real option except coming back. His $8.5 million cap hit runs five more years, and only about 10 teams have the cap space to absorb it.
Meanwhile, Winnipeg hasn’t skipped a beat. The Jets are 3-1-1 and the Kyle Connor-led offense is humming. Our own graphic from last week sums it up:
Stuart Skinner owns a .920 save percentage in his last three starts, and the Jets claimed Clay Stevenson off waivers from the Capitals. Stevenson won his debut in Pittsburgh and talked about the group in front of him:
If Hellebuyck does come back, Winnipeg would have to carry three goalies or put Stevenson back on waivers.
Hellebuyck made his trade request public in late August. Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has said the team has been trying to find a deal “that works for both sides for a long time,” and nothing has landed yet.
