Connor Hellebuyck is still waiting on a trade from the Winnipeg Jets, and the Jets aren’t in a rush if they don’t get their ask
NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman on NHL Now, was asked about where things are with the Winnipeg Jets and Connor Hellebuyck, and what would be a reasonable return for him?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Friedman: “Now, I also think Carolina is very interested in Connor Hellebuyck. I think there’s a chance he ends up there, but Nikishin is not signing in Winnipeg. And so I think what Carolina has done is they’ve allowed Nikishin’s new representation to talk to certain teams to see if there’s a way that they can get something, either to get a trade done for Nikishin or facilitate a situation where they might be able to trade for Hellebuyck.
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Corey Schneider: “Elliotte, you kind of beat me to it there with the Hellebuyck conversation. I just wanted to ask you first, where are we with the Hellebuyck situation, and secondly, what is a reasonable return to be expected for him?
I think, you hear Vezina, you hear MVP, you expect a certain return. I’m worried though that around the league, goalies aren’t valued the way that maybe some people think they are. So, what would you say is a reasonable return for Winnipeg to expect when they trade Conor Hellebuyck?
Friedman: “You know, I think sometimes Corey, like I think this is, I don’t like to talk about this about people’s lives, but it’s the best description. Sometimes I think it’s poker. You know, I really do. Yes, there are teams out there that don’t really value goaltending in terms of paying a ton for it.
But I think it’s really interesting that Carolina, which is, I think, a very intelligent organization, does have interest in Hellebuyck. So it says to me that they look at it more like we’ll, we’ll judge each goalie in their own individual way, as opposed to saying we don’t want to pay for goaltending.
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Because I think Carolina looks at what’s left of Hellebuyck’s contract and is willing to do that. So that’s one situation. That’s the one thing I’d say.
I think the biggest challenge here is there’s a couple things. Number one, I think Hellebuyck badly wants this to be over. You know, Corey, you and Michael are players. What does your body tell you right now? It’s time to play games. It’s not time to sit on the couch. It’s time to play games. So I think Hellebuck would like this to end.
But I also believe that Winnipeg sees this as a deal they cannot get wrong, and if they do get it wrong, they’re worried that it leads to a chain reaction where not only is Hellebuyck asking out, but then who follows somewhere down the road? Now, so they’ve had a really high bar.
One of the challenges now is that when they were talking to Buffalo, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen can now, he’s now added Winnipeg to his no trade list, so he’s not necessarily available to them. There are other goalies who have Winnipeg on their no-trade list, and they’re not available to them.
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Now, they claim Clay Stevenson on waivers (earlier this week) from Washington. I think Stevenson has a chance to be a pretty good goalie. If the season starts and Winnipeg plays well with Skinner and Stevenson, I’m curious to see here, Corey, if that helps break the logjam and allows Winnipeg to say, “Look, we’re comfortable with this, and maybe we can adjust what we’re thinking.’
But they have a high, high bar, Corey, for all the reasons you said, and they won’t make this trade, they would rather make no trade than what they see as a bad trade.”
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