Could a strong start for Jets change situation with Connor Hellebuyck?

The Winnipeg Jets’ 2026-27 season may be underway, but their former Hart Trophy-winning netminder remains on the sidelines.

Connor Hellebuyck is suspended indefinitely for not reporting to Jets’ training camp. The three-time Vezina Trophy winner requested a trade from the club after the 2025-26 campaign, then made the request pubic late in the offseason after the team wasn’t able to make a deal.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender are joined by The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta to discuss the Hellebuyck situation and what may happen if Winnipeg finds early success without their franchise netminder.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I really wanna see the Jets do well in the first two weeks. What if Stuart Skinner and Clay Stevenson look good? They’re both under 30 and the Jets say “hey, that may be our goaltending duo.” Let’s say Winnipeg starts 5-2-1 and maybe they go, “f–k ’em, we’ll trade them wherever and get futures and use those futures at the Trade Deadline and away we go.”

Could the Jets doing well change their view of what they need for Hellebuyck?

David Pagnotta: Definitely. The mandate has been similar to Kirill Marchenko with the Columbus Blue Jackets, before he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was Don Waddell saying: “We’re not trading him for futures. We need somebody now.” Now they moved out a first-line guy and brought in a first-line guy.

In Winnipeg, they’ll take some futures, but the primary pieces they want back are to help this team immediately. Whether it’s two forwards or a forward and a defenseman, whatever it ends up being, along with whatever’s included, that’s what they’ve looked for.

If they get off to a hot start, it does change things to a degree. I still think they’ll want to enhance their club and give them the best opportunity to succeed, and yes, in theory, you can collect future assets, package them up and move them to different environments. But it basically opens up the options for Winnipeg, significantly, if this team gets off to a really hot start in the first five-to-10 games.

That’s assuming Hellebuyck isn’t deal with in that time period. But they’ve held firm, they’re waiting.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…