Will Connor Hellebuyck have issues with late start to season?
While the New Jersey Devils and their fanbase seem to be fat and happy after acquiring goaltender Connor Hellebuyck from the Winnipeg Jets, one has to wonder what shape the three-time Vezina Trophy winner is in.
The Devils acquired the star netminder from the Winnipeg Jets last week, making the Devils immediate contenders for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and beyond. However, he’s joining the team a month into the 2026-27 season with zero game time. He didn’t attend training camp, leading to him being suspended by the Jets. New Jersey is going to expect the 33-year-old to make an immediate impact, even though he’s only been on the ice in private training sessions before the trade.
If there’s any comparison, Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman had a rough 2024-25 season after his contract dispute, though he has bounced back and shown his true elite form ever since.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, TSN’s Cameron Gaunce joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss whether Hellebuyck will be rusty coming out of the gate with his new team.
Cameron Gaunce: He’s minimalistic in his style. It’s not like he’s all over the map. It’s not like he relies on this outrageous athleticism that is slowly deteriorating. He’s deep in his net. He reads the game extremely well. He understands what’s coming at him. So, even if he’s a little bit older and he might not move quite as well, that’s not as big of a factor for some of the other goaltenders you see around the league.
When you talk about Connor Hellebuyck going to a new team, yes, he’s very motivated. He wants to get in games. You hear him talk about how sooner the better for him. You have to also think about health in the sense that you’re taking shots with two guys…that’s great. It’s going to be their NHL shooters, all this stuff, but it’s very different when you’re making those reads and you’re going from side-to-side, and your brain’s working at a different pace than it ever was. Because even if your body’s going at one speed, your brain and your nervous system is now going to be firing a whole different set of circumstances at you, and it’s going to be tough.
The one thing that he’s going to deal with, or not deal with as much anymore, that’s going to help him travel. He goes to this division where he’s probably, I assume it’s busses or trains for those teams in that division, which is a lot easier than dealing with Winnipeg flying as much as they as much as they had to. That’ll help with his health, especially early on.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…
