- Tage Thompson made Buffalo’s pitch for Connor Hellebuyck at the NHL player media tour
- Thompson has been texting the Jets goalie since Team USA won Olympic gold in Milan
- Read below for where Buffalo and Winnipeg actually stand on a Hellebuyck trade
Tage Thompson has spent the summer sliding into Connor Hellebuyck’s texts.
The Buffalo Sabres center was in Las Vegas this week for the NHL player media tour, and he did not bother pretending to be neutral about the biggest name on the trade board. Asked about the Winnipeg goalie who wants out, Thompson gave up Buffalo’s pitch in about nine words.
“We would love to have him in Buffalo. I’m sure every team in the league would love to have him. He’s the best in the world.”
Buffalo’s contingent ran the usual photo-shoot circuit while they were out there:
Those texts started in Milan. Hellebuyck stopped 41 of 42 shots in a 2-1 overtime win over Canada to win Olympic gold, and the Team USA group chat has never really moved on from it.
Thompson explained what still lands in the goalie’s phone months later, per Michael Traikos of The Hockey News.
“Good morning, Helle. Thank you. It was going pretty strong for I think the first few months after we won and it died out a little bit. But every now and then someone will chime in with one.”
He is not the only one still sending them. Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin said the chat regularly coughs up another “Thank you Helly.”
These two clubs have been here before. Buffalo poked around Hellebuyck at the June draft, but GM Jarmo Kekalainen and Jets counterpart Kevin Cheveldayoff never found a middle. Traikos reports the sides are believed to have re-engaged now that camps open Sept. 16, which reads differently than Pierre LeBrun saying this week that nothing was on the table.
Kekalainen calls the roster crunch a positive problem. The crease is the awkward part of it, because any Hellebuyck deal sends a goalie back the other way. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has three years left at $4.75 million and Alex Lyon is on the last year of a $1.5 million deal.
Neither one played badly enough to make the choice easy. Take a look at what the Sabres were bragging about Thursday:
Thompson was asked what happens if the Sabres never land the guy he keeps texting.
“There’s things that are out of your control. We’d love to have him, but if that doesn’t happen, then we just move forward with the group we got. We have three talented goalies that all played great last year for us when we needed them.”
Buffalo won the Atlantic Division last season and finally ended a 14-season playoff drought. The roster that pulled it off is thinner now, with Alex Tuch gone to Washington in a sign-and-trade and Bowen Byram shipped to Chicago.
Winnipeg still has to find a price it likes on the best goalie in the world. Until somebody meets it, Thompson’s only play is the group chat.
