Kevin Cheveldayoff faced the media on Thursday morning, a day after the Winnipeg Jets suspended Connor Hellebuyck for failing to report to training camp. The most pointed question of the session concerned the one theory that had been giving the goaltender some cover.
A report had surfaced in the previous couple of days suggesting Hellebuyck signed his extension in 2023 with an understanding that Winnipeg would facilitate a trade if the team failed to contend. If true, it would reframe the standoff entirely – less a player abandoning a contract, more a player holding the club to its word.
GM on Connor Hellebuyck
Asked directly whether any such arrangement existed, Cheveldayoff didn’t leave much room for interpretation.
“A contract is a contract in the National Hockey League. Period,” Cheveldayoff said. “There are no side agreements, there are no gentlemen agreements. The league doesn’t allow for that, so any notion around that would not have any merit.”
He also declined to explain Hellebuyck’s thinking, including the reported refusal to accept a trade to any Canadian team.
“The choices that he makes are the choices that he makes. I don’t have an understanding as to why he made some of the choices that he made,” Cheveldayoff said.
The GM framed the suspension itself as a formality rather than a punishment, and insisted the situation isn’t closed.
“This really isn’t about finances. Just about procedural and the way things work procedurally in the NHL,” he said. “No doors are closed. He’s a player that’s under contract for five years. But at the end of the day, that’s his choice.”
Fans slam Hellebuyck
With the handshake-deal theory off the table, fans turned on Hellebuyck harder than they have all summer.
“You can’t take the security of a 7 year deal then pout. The rumors before the extension were he was hesitant to sign, well that’s too bad, you took the safety net. Just a terrible look by the player,” one wrote.
“If he had asked for a trade 4-6 years into the deal and still no success I doubt anyone would be blaming Hellebuyck, but to ask for a trade 2 years in shows that he was never committed to the team,” another argued.
READ MORE: What happens now that Connor Hellebuyck is suspended
Plenty wanted Winnipeg to dig in rather than accommodate him at all.
“I’m of the position that if the Jets don’t force Connor to sit until the end of his contract or until he mans up and plays again, then they risk all future contracts, as they are shown as weak to these tactics,” one fan wrote. Another kept it shorter: “Sit him forever, Chevy.”
Cheveldayoff said there is no timeline on a trade and repeated that he wants a deal that works for both sides. In the meantime, Stuart Skinner – signed on July 1 in what now looks like a well-timed insurance policy – shared the crease with prospect Thomas Milic during the first group skate of camp.
Hellebuyck requested the trade during exit interviews following his 11th season with the franchise that drafted him 12th overall in 2012. He is the first NHL player in 27 years to be suspended for failing to report to camp, after Alexei Yashin sat out the entire 1999-2000 season in Ottawa.
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