Connor Hellebuyck asked to be traded, went public with it in August, and has been suspended without pay since mid-September for refusing to report. The expectation throughout has been that it ends with him somewhere else. Elliotte Friedman thinks there’s another ending forming, and he doesn’t believe a single person involved would welcome it.
“There’s starting to become a lot of talk about Hellebuyck potentially coming back,” Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast.
That isn’t him reporting a change of heart. His read is that the goaltender may simply run out of alternatives.
“I don’t think anybody involved here wants that,” Friedman said. “I don’t think Hellebuyck wants that, I don’t think the Jets want that, I don’t think the Jets players want that, I don’t think the Jets fans want that.”
Can Hellebuyck sit out the whole season?
Ottawa went through this with Alexei Yashin a quarter of a century ago. The forward sat out the entire 1999-2000 campaign in a contract dispute, and when the matter reached an arbitrator, the ruling went against him. His obligation to the Senators hadn’t disappeared with the missed season. He still owed them the year.
That ruling is why a prolonged absence doesn’t solve anything for Hellebuyck. Sitting out costs him the salary without moving him any closer to the exit, and the precedent suggests the contract would still be waiting for him afterwards.
“It’s just that if this drags on, eventually he may have no choice,” Friedman said.
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The money is already adding up. Hellebuyck is forfeiting $38,660 for every day he stays away, and would give up $7.5 million across a full season.
A return would create its own problems. Scott Arniel would have to reintegrate a franchise goaltender into a room that has started 4-0-1 without him, with Stuart Skinner and Clay Stevenson holding up in net. David Pagnotta reported last week that the players wouldn’t welcome him back with open arms, and nothing suggests a return would withdraw the trade request anyway.
Carolina, Buffalo and Utah remain the clubs attached to him. Hellebuyck has five years left at an $8.5 million cap hit.
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