Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck’s comments yesterday could lead to an interesting offseason
Mike McIntyre: (on Hellebuyck’s comments) “The anger. The emotion. The pause. The body language. The words — spoken and unspoken. All of it points to something bigger. Buckle up, folks. The #NHLJets may have a major Connor Hellebuyck problem on their hands.”
Here’s the video of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck being asked if this #NHLJets season will cause him to re-evaluate his future, pausing for ~7 seconds, and then getting into his full answer: pic.twitter.com/Zjr1sLbmnn
— Connor Hrabchak (@ConnorHrabchak1) April 17, 2026
NHL Injuries: Hurricanes, Stars, Wild, Canadiens, Rangers, Senators, Lightning, and Golden Knights
Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press: The 33-year-old Hellebuyck has five years left on his contract at $8.5 million. He missed three weeks back in November after having knee surgery.
He won a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympics, but his NHL numbers were down: a 23-23-11 record, 2.86 goals-against average, and a .895 save percentage in 57 games. Hellebuyck said his game wasn’t any different.
“There’s no secret we weren’t the fastest team in the league,” he said. “There’s a lot of screens and a lot of things that happened that I had no control over.”
The thought of trading Hellebuyck probably wasn’t on the mind of any Jets management before. If they were to make him available, there would definitely be a bidding war for him. The Jets have been in a “win now” mode, so the idea of trading their all-star goalie would mean a shift in plans.
Has the frustration boiled over or will things cool down? Hellebuyck wants to see change, but how deep will the changes go?
“I’m not going to just sit here and throw every guy under the bus because, honestly, I’m a goalie and I know goaltending really well. I can’t say this forward did this and that defence did that. That’s not my spot. But to just put that same product on the ice, I don’t think it worked for a reason.”
The New Jersey Devils Found the Right Guy in Sunny Mehta
A list of offseason priorities for the Winnipeg Jets
Murat Ates of The Athletic: (written before Hellebuyck’s comments) The Winnipeg Jets have foundational pieces in Connor Hellebuyck, Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey, but their roster has obvious weaknesses that they’ll look to address this offseason. A list of seven of their top offseason priorities.
1. Review Kevin Cheveldayoff’s recent track record
2. Decide how the Winnipeg Jets are supposed to build a winning team
3. Develop a better plan for player development, Manitoba Moose
4. Find a route to the Jets’ next great second and third lines – Their middle-six had trouble scoring. Need to take the weight off of Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor. They finally need to find a No. 2 center.
5. Determine whether Scott Arniel is still the right head coach
6. Elevate Winnipeg’s analytical investment to match that of top teams
7. Re-sign RFAs Cole Perfetti and Isak Rosen, plus UFA Cole Koepke if you can
We had to restart our X account. Please follow @MyNHLRumorsX
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? Rumor roundups and hot topics from around the league. We’re also posting some stuff on Instagram.
If you love our reporting, choose NHLrumors.com as a preferred source on Google.
