A Devil of A Deal

Man is that a different sight. We talked about it when we broke the news on the last show, but its still a big deal that's having a ripple effect on the league now. It took a little while, and the saga of it has been well documented, but it finally happened. The Winnipeg Jets have moved on from former league MVP goalie Conor Hellebuyck. HE's now tending the pipes as a New Jersey Devil.

The full trade is Winnipeg gets Nico Daws, Dawson Mercer, Alexander Command, Nick Bjugstad, a 2029 2nd round pick and a 2027 7th round pick. In exchange, the Devils got Hellebuyck.

Hellebuyck was taken in the 5th round, 130th overall in the 2012 entry draft. Up till the trade, he'd played his entire career in Winnipeg. 625 games in the Jets nets, with a 345-20855 record, a 2.58goals against average and a .916 save percentage. The biggest awards were the gold medal at the Olympics earlier this year, a four time all-star, three Vezina trophies and the league MVP in 2025. So the numbers were really good in Winnipeg. But something wasn't sitting right between him and the organization.

So, during the summer Hellebuyck came out and said that he had requested a trade from the Jets several months prior to making the announcement public. Winnipeg hadn't been able to find a suitable trade partner, as according to the team, the trades they had been offered were "terrible". So since Connor wasn't moved, he didn't show up for training camp and was promptly suspended by the team until a trade could be made, or he actually reported, whatever happened first.

The trade happened and Connor is now in New Jersey. The Jets finally get to move on from this, and hopefully it will help them maybe get better in the long run. Stuart Skinner has done an admirable job replacing Connor in the Winnipeg nets. Will he be the new answer to get them over the hump and back into playoff contention? Only time will tell.

As for Connor, this is a massive move for the Devils, who seemed to have found their guy to be the next in line of great goaltenders in New Jersey. It's kind of something they've been looking for since Marty Brodeur retired. Now having that kind of stable force in net, combined with some of the fire power that the Devils have, they have the potential to be very good.