Connor Hellebuyck told Winnipeg supporters this week that incidents involving his family had crossed a line, and that they were part of why he wanted out. Elliotte Friedman has now set out what the Winnipeg Jets were told at the time, and the two accounts don’t line up.
“When Hellebuyck initially told the Jets he wanted to be traded, he said, look, I want to be traded to Florida, and it was about the direction of the team,” Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast.
So the request named one club, and the reason attached to it was the state of the roster. The incidents involving his family, the ones he spoke about in Winnipeg this week, were not raised at all.
“But again, whatever bothered him didn’t come up,” Friedman said.
How the saga unfolded:
| Trade request | Went public | Skipped camp | Traded |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | August 27 | September | October 23 |
Why didn’t Hellebuyck get traded to Florida?
Hellebuyck eventually widened his list to take in any club he believed could win a Stanley Cup, and Buffalo ended up on it. What forced that was Winnipeg’s refusal to accept what the Panthers were putting on the table.
Months passed. Nothing happened. That, according to Friedman, is when the family concerns entered the conversation with the club for the first time.
“Later, when things weren’t going the way that he wanted them to go and he hadn’t been traded yet, that’s when he brought it up,” Friedman said.
His reading is that the goaltender held it back deliberately rather than strategically.
“In Hellebuyck’s mind, he was like, I’m not bringing my family into this. I want to protect my family,” Friedman said.
The club saw a man adding new reasons once the old ones stopped working.
“On the other side, there’s the Jets, and they’re like, really? Now you’re just bringing other things into it that you didn’t tell us before,” Friedman said. “So in Hellebuyck’s mind, he was doing the right thing and he was protecting his family. And he did want to be traded. The Jets were like, no, this isn’t right.”
That is the whole of the fallout in one exchange, with both sides holding a position that makes sense from where they were standing.
Hellebuyck went public with the request on August 27, skipped training camp, was suspended without pay and was traded to New Jersey on October 23. Florida, the club he originally named, never got him.
He has won all six of his starts for the Devils.
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