After a summer of speculation, Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck officially went public with his long-rumoured request to be traded.
In his statement, released Thursday via agent Ray Petkau, Hellebuyck said he first made the request to the team “several months ago” and expressed his desire to keep things quiet and respectful.
“With training camp approaching,” he wrote, via Petkau, “I felt it was important to publicly confirm my request.”
The NHL has seen some big-name goalies move to new markets this summer, including starters for the past two Stanley Cup champs. The Florida Panthers let Sergei Bobrvosky go in free agency, where he signed with Toronto, and traded for Jacob Markstrom from New Jersey in his place. Frederik Andersen, fresh off winning the Cup in Carolina, is now a member of the Edmonton Oilers.
Now, get ready for the biggest move of them all.
It’s hard to imagine a more coveted netminder becoming available. Hellebuyck is a three-time Vezina Trophy winner, most recently earning the title in back-to-back seasons in 2023-24 and 2024-25. He won the William M. Jennings Trophy both of those years, too, and capped that ’24-’25 campaign with the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP — an honour rarely bestowed on a netminder.
The 33-year-old shone on the international stage earlier this year as he backstopped Team USA to Olympic gold. That success, and his public honestly afterwards as he voiced his frustrations about not being able to win it all in Winnipeg, first fuelled speculation about his future.
Now, we know the netminder has played his last game as a Jet.
Hellebuyck is under contract through 2030-31, at $8.5 million a year. That's the third-highest AAV for a goaltender league-wide (tied with Vancouver's Thatcher Demko) behind Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers.
He has a full no-movement clause for one more season, putting him firmly in control here. Starting next year, that changes to a modified clause that states he must submit a 10-team approved trade list.
So, where might the elite netminder be traded? Where could he fit best, in terms of opportunity to thrive — and, of course, to win? We’ve got a few ideas.
Had things gone differently around the draft, Hellebuyck would already be a Sabre. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported back in June that he believed Winnipeg and Buffalo had been talking about a deal — and that Hellebuyck “would have been willing to waive (his no-movement clause) to go to Buffalo.”
Ultimately, no trade came to fruition, of course. (Imagine, for a second, if a proposed trade had gone through at the time — how different might this off-season have looked around the league?)
Just because conversations stalled then, doesn’t mean they can’t pick up again. Two months later, Hellebuyck-to-Buffalo still makes a ton of sense. There would be no better way to build on last season’s success than bringing in a bona fide No. 1 netminder to backstop them into their new era of contention. Even though the club’s by-committee approach to the crease was effective last year — between Alex Lyon (.907 save percentage in 36 appearances), Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (.910 SV% in 35 games) and Colten Ellis (.903 SV% in 16 games), the Sabres posted the third-best team save percentage league-wide (.900) — the opportunity to land a true star in Hellebuyck is a massive upgrade by any measure.
It makes sense for Hellebuyck, too. He’d be joining a passionate U.S. market relatively close to home for the Michigander, and a team on the rise. And he’d be playing behind a talented young blue line led by Rasmus Dahlin and featuring Owen Power and a Mattias Samuelsson fresh off a breakout year, as well as newcomers Olen Zellweger and Louis Crevier. There’s tons more room for growth there — especially if GM Jarmo Kekalainen can plug in an elite netminder as the last line of defence.
With just over $5 million in cap space right now, Kekalainen would have to clear up a little room to accommodate Hellebuyck. But the trade chips are there — the Sabres have a deep prospect pool, their own first-rounders the next three years, and could deal one of their trio of netminders back to Winnipeg, too, to play alongside Stuart Skinner.
Sunny Mehta pulled off some savvy signings this off-season, answering a lot of questions about the Devils’ identity under the new GM. But one question he didn’t really answer?
Goaltending.
While it’s true that Jake Allen outperformed Jacob Markstrom last year (Allen posted a .904 save percentage in 37 games, compared to Markstrom’s .883 through 44), which led at least in part to Markstrom’s trade to Florida earlier this summer, it’s unclear whether the Devils feel they’ve got a true No. 1 netminder this year. New Jersey ranked in the bottom half of team save percentage in 2025-26 (.889) and are currently set to embark on 2026-27 with a trio of Allen, Nico Daws, and David Rittich. While cost effective — the total payroll in the blue paint comes in at just under $4 million — there’s no sure thing there.
Like the Sabres, the Devils (currently with $3.85 million in cap space) will need to do some minor number-crunching. New Jersey has four first-rounders in the next two years, so the capital is there to get a deal done if Winnipeg is looking to retool via the draft.
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Do the Golden Knights have cap space to accommodate a new No. 1 goalie? No. But year after year, we’ve watched this team pull off big-money moves anyway.
It seems nothing will stop Vegas from being in the mix for pretty much every big-name free agent or trade target in the past — this is a team that gets deals done. So, onto the list they go!
No stranger to splashy off-season moves, the Golden Knights have also not been shy to make big changes in net. Their three trips to the Stanley Cup Final over the past nine years, including two such trips in the past three seasons, have all featured different No. 1 netminders.
But here’s the thing: bringing in Hellebuyck makes no sense for Vegas if Adin Hill isn’t part of the return, and that raises a lot of questions for both teams involved. Hill, 30, is signed at $6.25 million annually through 2030-31 and has control here with a no-trade clause that allows him to submit a 10-team no-trade list. (That list narrows to eight teams next summer, and six in 2029-30.) Is Winnipeg on that list? Do the Jets believe Hill can bounce back to form after a down year? Does Vegas?
The only thing more enticing than joining the team that went all the way to the Cup Final last year? That’d be the team that won the whole thing.
Like Vegas, the Hurricanes are never shy to take a big swing. But unlike the Golden Knights, Carolina’s desire to make a splash doesn’t always see the same kind of results. This summer’s attempt came when the club acquired defenceman John Carlson’s rights, but the Hurricanes were unable to lock him up. It’s been an otherwise quiet summer for the champs (minus all those celebrations, of course) and in fact the one big roster-altering move we did see was the departure of Frederik Andersen in free agency. While it’s true that Brandon Bussi seamlessly slots in at No. 1 going forward after more than proving he can carry the load, it’s also true that goalies like Hellebuyck don’t become available too often…
And if the champs have in fact been saving up to make a splash to set up their run-it-back season… well, this would be quite something.
In terms of logistics, the Hurricanes are fascinating. They’ve got just under $10 million in cap space heading into the season with a Cup-winning core locked securely in place for at least the next five years, and have four first-rounders in the next three years. Could unsigned RFA Alexander Nikishin factor in here? Also of note: Hellebuyck and Jaccob Slavin were two of the biggest factors in Team USA’s Olympic success, it’s not hard to imagine the goalie wishing to reunite with one of his most trusted rearguards.
The Sharks’ big off-season saw them bring in some big rearguards in Jacob Trouba and Darnell Nurse. Might they wish to bring in the biggest name in goaltending to serve as the last line of defence?
While it’s true that the Sharks appeared to have mostly solved all future goaltending questions when they acquired Yaroslav Askarov from the Predators in August 2024, it’s also true that Askarov’s play in San Jose hasn’t always lived up to expectations. This is a team that’s clearly looking to take the next step, but can only do so if the goaltending is there.
They’ve got cap space, draft assets, and a wealth of prospects that would likely entice the Jets.
A move to bring in Hellebuyck would declare to the league that the Sharks are looking to contend in a real way, and now. If Hellebuyck is willing to bet on the young club, that would be a ringing endorsement that they’re ready.
