.png)
The Connor Hellebuyck saga in Winnipeg is finally over. On Friday, the Jets traded the former Hart and Vezina Trophy winner to the New Jersey Devils for four players and two future draft picks. Winnipeg General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff indicated he was “comfortable” with the return the Jets received, with multiple media outlets expressing frustration that a first-round draft pick was not part of the haul.
One of the players moved was forward Alexander Command, an 18-year-old who was the 12th overall pick taken back in June’s NHL Draft, and the first round pick of the Devils.
Winnipeg can focus on hosting the Heritage Classic on Sunday, while New Jersey gets another Hall of Fame caliber goaltender in their organization in an effort to get out of the first round of the playoffs for only the second time since making the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012. New Jersey sends forwards Command, Dawson Mercer, Nick Bjugstad, goaltender Nico Daws, a 2027 7th-round pick, and a 2029 2nd-round pick to get Hellebuyck, who is in the third year of a seven-year, $59.5 million extension signed with the Jets in 2024. The Devils pick up the entirety of the remaining contract, which moves them $369,000 over the salary cap, and puts the Jets $5.27 under the cap.
Hellebuyck requested a trade this summer, with the Buffalo Sabres, Vegas Golden Knights, and Detroit Red Wings looking to be favorites out of the gate. There were even rumors swirling that Detroit and Winnipeg would do a one-for-one swap of star players with trade requests, after Red Wing captain Dylan Larkin also asked to be traded this summer. Larkin eventually reported to the Red Wings, having played several games in this young season. Hellebuyck decided to sit out, costing him more than $900,000 in team-levied suspensions.
New Jersey was more of a second-tier trade partner on a lot of people’s radar, but if you have a franchise caliber goaltender who piles up trophies, New Jersey would be one of the places you may expect them to land. The Devils have been a revolving door of goaltenders since Martin Brodeur’s exit, but Hellebuyck is 33, and came off a 2025-26 season where he failed to post a shutout for the first time in his career. Hellebuyck also had knee surgery prior to the season, but was healthy enough to lead Team USA to the gold medal at the Milan Winter Olympics in February.
It was the highlight of a rather modest season by Hellebuyck’s standards. The Jets finished 35-35-12, seventh in the Central Division, failing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2022.
New Jersey travels to Winnipeg on November 10, and you can bet Hellebuyck will be nowhere near the ice that night. You should expect to see a three-time Vezina Trophy winner (2020, 2024, and 2025) playing down in the American Hockey League as part of a conditioning assignment, having missed an entire training camp by just refusing to go to work. Since New Jersey only travels to Winnipeg once a season, Jets fans will have to wait until next fall (at the earliest) to get the anger out of their system inside the Canada Life Centre. His first game back in Winnipeg will not be as venomous as when John Tavares returned to Long Island after signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but if Brady Tkachuk’s return to Ottawa this week was any indicator, Hellebuyck is in for a very loud night.
If Hellebuyck plays well, New Jersey wins the trade. If he plays as average as he did last season, Cheveldayoff looks like a genius. He fleeced a first round pick, depth at forward, a young goaltender (Daws) looking for a fresh start of his own, and shed $8.5 million off his books the next five seasons. While Winnipeg can tread water for a couple of years and contend for a Wild Card in the Western Conference, New Jersey has no other choice but to not only make the playoffs, they must be one of the top teams in the Metropolitan Division by next spring. Not a soul thinks that New Jersey has a chance of upending the defending-champion Carolina Hurricanes the remaining 70 games of the season, but the division is now ripe with teams who cannot decide if they want to challenge Carolina, or be in the lottery…except Columbus, who is back in the cellar.
Keep in mind that not only has New Jersey not been out but once since 2012, losing to Carolina in the second round in 2023, but the Devils have only made the playoffs three times since then, losing to Carolina two of them. General Manager Sunny Mehta has made moves like this one of his calling cards in recent years, as he was the Assistant General Manager for the Florida Panthers in 2023, and helped oversee hockey strategy and intelligence for their back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships in 2024 and 2025.
The jokes and memes of Quinn Hughes asking for a trade to New Jersey have already begun. Hughes was part of a blockbuster deal last year that sent him from the Vancouver Canucks to the Minnesota Wild. Vancouver was the worst team in the NHL last year, and are currently in the same spot early on this season. Minnesota however is considered a darkhorse contender to win the Western Conference this season, given a full year with Hughes in the mix. There should be no reason for a sibling reunion in New Jersey, like what the Tkachuk brothers orchestrated in Florida this summer.
-JC24