Connor Hellebuyck Trade Talks Escalating

Oct. 23rd: TSN’s Darren Dreger reports this morning that Hellebuyck trade talks “are escalating” and that a deal “could go down today.” According to Dreger, a “busy day [is] developing” that could see Hellebuyck finally traded.

Oct. 19th: According to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, three teams remain firmly in the mix for Hellebuyck. If the Jets are unable to trade him by Friday, Kaplan reports that Winnipeg will continue to pay him but will try to keep him away from the team. While Hellebuyck’s $8.5MM salary would count against the Jets’ salary cap, it’s uncertain whether he will occupy a roster spot if they choose to go down that path.

Oct. 17th: Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has been away from the team since he decided not to report for training camp and has been under suspension since then.  However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the suspension is set to end on Friday, October 23rd.

This is not a situation where Hellebuyck’s camp notified the team that he intends to return on Friday and is just giving them ample notice.  As it turns out, Friedman reports that notification actually happened back before their regular season started with notice being given on October 2nd.

However, because the veteran netminder had missed training camp, Article 15.13(c)(v) of the CBA comes into play.  Specifically, the section reads as follows:

If a Player who has not received permission to be absent from Training Camp returns to the Club, he shall be subject to a disciplinary suspension of reasonable length.

There is no strict definition of a reasonable suspension but in this case, it appears they’ve settled on three weeks being an appropriate length.  The netminder has been forfeiting over $38K in salary each day since the season started and will surpass $900K in forfeited salary before the suspension ends on Friday.

At that point, Hellebuyck will be able to rejoin the team while his $8.5MM cap hit will come back onto Winnipeg’s books.  They will also need to add him to their active roster at that time.  Presently, the team has a full 23-player roster so someone will need to come off in the coming days.  The easiest path for that would be to place Vladislav Namestnikov on injured reserve as he’s out week-to-week.  However, that would leave them with just 12 healthy forwards on the roster while carrying two extra blueliners and one extra goaltender which isn’t an ideal setup.

Of course, there is another option, that being the trade route.  Knowing that Hellebuyck doesn’t really want to come back and the awkwardness that would be created by his return, could this news be what helps push a trade over the finish line.  The netminder has been available going back to the draft but while a deal with Buffalo was thought to be close, it didn’t materialize and since then, there have been no firm indications that progress has been made on a deal elsewhere.  But in a league where a lot of activity gets finalized when deadlines approach, perhaps this pending return will serve as enough of a deadline to get Hellebuyck the fresh start that he’s seeking.