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Some Winnipeggers say Connor Hellebuyck can go to the Devils for all they care as Jets fans are ready to move past the trade saga.
The all-star goalie has been traded to New Jersey following a drawn-out spat between the player and the team that drafted him into the NHL in 2012.
“I’m glad that he’s gone. He didn’t have a good attitude,” Jets fan Gord Walters said Friday. “He was a good goalie, but I think it was time for a change.”
The three-time Vezina Trophy winner and 2025 league MVP asked for a trade at the end of last season, with five years still left on a seven-year contract. Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff said last month the team was caught off guard when the 33-year-old confirmed the request publicly in August.
In September, Hellebuyck was suspended after he failed to show up for training camp. The suspension was set to expire the day the trade was announced.
Cheveldayoff said that while Hellebuyck accomplished a lot of things with the Jets, the months-long spat “certainly hasn’t been fun.”
He told reporters Friday he expects Hellebuyck’s return to Winnipeg as a New Jersey Devil on Nov. 10 to be an emotional night for Jets fans.
“Kevin Cheveldayoff is trying to put a very positive spin on a very difficult situation for the Winnipeg Jets,” NHL analyst Jeff Marek said in an interview on CBC News Network.
Marek said he doesn’t believe there was any way Hellebuyck could have played for the Jets again, saying the goalie’s comments about the team’s performance last season strained his relationship with his teammates.
The Connor Hellebuyck era is over in Winnipeg after the Jets traded the all-star goalie on Friday. The 33-year-old from Michigan is headed to the New Jersey Devils.
Trade part of Olympic finals ‘butterfly effect’
“Kyle Connor talked about, you know, if [Hellebuyck is] coming back, is he coming back to recommit to the team or is he coming back just to play and collect a paycheque?” Marek said.
“And you know, Winnipeg hockey fans, they can be ruthless … their noses were put out of joint about this one, too.”
Andrew (Hustler) Paterson, co-host of Winnipeg Sports Talk, said there are many variables that may have factored into the spat, including the U.S. men’s hockey team’s performance at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
U.S. President Donald Trump awarded Hellebuyck the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his gold-medal-winning exploits in the final against Team Canada — a game which happened under the shadow of Trump’s threats to annex the country and growing anti-American sentiment.
Cheveldayoff told reporters in September harassment targeting Hellebuyck had escalated to the point police had to be involved.
“The way that got politicized … was unfortunate, I think, for the players,” Paterson said.
“The butterfly effect of that game I think is still being felt right now and this trade, you can argue, is a part of it,” he said. “Canada wins that gold medal game … [and Hellebuyck] might still be around as well. But I guess we’ll never know.”
Jets had no leverage ahead of trade: Marek
In exchange for Hellebuyck, the Jets acquired forwards Dawson Mercer, Alexander Command and Nick Bjugstad, and goalie Nico Daws. They also got New Jersey’s second-round pick in the 2029 NHL draft and a seventh-round pick in 2027.
Marek said the Jets were in no position to win the trade.
“Goaltenders don’t go for big prices to begin with, and when it’s a distressed asset and everyone in the league knows he wants out, there wasn’t a leverage position,” he said.
“I think [Cheveldayoff] just plugged his nose and said, ‘This was the best possible deal and we’re taking it now.'”
Gord Walters said the team “needs some youth anyways” and that he believes it was a good deal.
Travis Myers, another Jets fan, said he liked Hellebuyck and some fans will always have a soft spot for him, but “he’s probably going to hear it” when he comes back to Winnipeg as the enemy.
“As it comes to like retiring his jersey number, I mean, that can be up for question too after this saga,” he said.
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