Why Buffalo should be the next stop for Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck

The waves are choppier, the winds gustier, but the Winnipeg Jets have faced this storm before. And they’ve always found a way to emerge in one piece on the shore.

There’s no overstating the magnitude of franchise goalie Connor Hellebuyck going public with a trade request that would remove him from Winnipeg. For everything general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has dealt with in the past, nothing compares to — with the whole world knowing the player wants to move on — trading a guy many see as the best at his position who is one year removed from being named league MVP and seven months from a career-defining performance at the Olympics. 

Jacob Trouba, Patrik Laine and Pierre-Luc Dubois were all great players in their own right, but none of them approach Hellebuyck’s current standing in the game.

Still, Cheveldayoff’s ability to recoup quality returns for all three of those players — again, when everybody knew their time in Winnipeg was ending, one way or another — should be a comforting precedent.

Neal Pionk — a little-known, undersized defenceman when the Jets got him from the Rangers in the Trouba deal in 2019 — has been steady-Eddy on the right side of Winnipeg’s top four for seven seasons. In 2021, Cheveldayoff turned Laine into Dubois, who also ultimately didn’t want to make Manitoba a long-term home. After two 60-point seasons with the Jets, Cheveldayoff shipped Dubois — whose status as a soon-to-be UFA gave him loads of leverage — to the L.A. Kings for a package that included current first-line stud Gabe Vilardi. At 27 years old — and a robust six-foot-three, 215 pounds — Vilardi is coming off a career-best 30 goals, played all 82 for the first time in his NHL tenure and is locked in on a palatable cap hit of $7.5 million through 2030-31. 

So, how can a cornered Cheveldayoff pen another success story?

By getting back on the phone with the Buffalo Sabres and understanding that, even without asking for the moon, there’s a great deal to be struck.

On Thursday, Sportsnet’s Emily Sadler outlined five reasonable landing spots for Hellebuyck, and there’s a reason Buffalo topped the list. When the smoke first started billowing around him in June, we thought a deal built around the fourth-overall pick the Sabres acquired from Chicago might work well.

However, the draft came and went, and no trade was consummated.

Speaking of the draft, things there worked out fantastically for the Jets when Swedish centre Viggo Björck fell to them at No. 8. Winnipeg has forever been in search of a second line that can support the trio of Mark Scheifele between Vilardi and Kyle Connor, and drafting Björck was a meaningful step toward filling that void long-term.

Now how about getting a couple more forwards who are more NHL-ready than Björck from Buffalo?

If Cheveldayoff is demanding two prime roster players from Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen, it’s time to adjust his targets. Kekalainen wants to add Hellebuyck to the lineup he’s ready to push it over the top, not trade one problem for another by solving his crease questions only by worsening his forward or defence crews.

If Zach Benson is holding up this deal, Cheveldayoff needs to give up the ghost. 

The Sabres, however, are a prospect-rich organization that can offer very intriguing players who can help the Jets both now and in the future.

Let’s outline two assumptions that kind of go hand-in-hand: The first is that Winnipeg will not let a Hellebuyck trade immediately push it into a rebuild, and the second is, as part of the push to make the playoffs in 2027, that goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is an obvious piece to acquire from the Sabres. Luukkonen has a five-team no-trade list, but even if Winnipeg is on it, why would a 27-year-old Luukkonen want to stay in Buffalo in the prime of his career and play second fiddle to Hellebuyck?

Now, let’s submit the names of 22-year-old Jiri Kulich and 20-year-old Konsta Helenius. Kulich, a first-rounder in 2022, has said he’s clear to play next season after a blood clot limited him to 12 NHL games this past season. The Czech had 15 goals in 62 games for Buffalo as a freshman in 2024-25. Helenius, the 14^th-overall pick in 2024, was a point-per-game player as an AHL sophomore this past season and flashed his offensive talent with two goals in four NHL playoff games for the Sabres. 

Reasonable-case scenario is you’re getting a good second-liner (Helenius) and fantastic third-liner (Kulich) to buttress a secondary scoring crew that already has Cole Perfetti in the mix and Björck coming this season or next. Best case is you snagged two guys who can play somewhere on the first two lines, but because they haven’t done that yet, Buffalo was willing to part with them.

As for the goaltending, you have to recalibrate expectations when you’ve been watching the best in the world for 10 years. However, a timeshare of Luukkonen and Stuart Skinner — inked as a free agent in July, knowing this Hellebuyck situation would eventually come to a head — is something you can move forward with for multiple seasons while trying to find your next stud stopper through other means. Even with a miserable .887 save percentage in 2024-25, Luukkonen has a .901 SP in the past three seasons. Only nine goalies who played at least 140 games during that span have a better mark. And, in case you need a reminder, Luukkonen was playing behind a far messier defensive scene for much of that time in Buffalo than the pristine play Hellebuyck typically saw in front of his crease in Manitoba. 

There’s a natural inclination to think any time you’re trading a Hart Trophy winner away you’ll get a player with obvious MVP potential in return, but that’s just not how it usually works. Cheveldayoff must identify young players — specifically forwards — who can thrive in Winnipeg in bigger roles than they had with their previous squad.

If he can do that again, the Jets will set sail with a team capable of remaining competitive for years to come.