Connor Hellebuyck trade: Jets' 3-0-1 start says Winnipeg can wait

The Connor Hellebuyck trade standoff, one week into the season

The Connor Hellebuyck trade is no closer than it was when camp opened, and the Winnipeg Jets have stopped looking like a team that needs it done. Winnipeg is 3-0-1 after Kyle Connor scored with one minute left in regulation to beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Oct. 7, and it has collected seven of a possible eight points with Stuart Skinner and Clay Stevenson in goal.

Hellebuyck, 33, the 2025 Hart Trophy winner and a three-time Vezina winner, remains suspended. The Jets suspended him in mid-September after he failed to report to training camp, following a trade request his agent, Ray Petkau, made public in late August. No deal has been announced, and general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has said the timeline is undefined.

LeafsLurker's view: the strong start does not mean Winnipeg has solved its goaltending. It means Winnipeg has leverage, and the smart move is to use it by waiting. The calendar is on the Jets' side.

How Winnipeg's goalies have held up

The Jets' first four games, from team and league game reports:

DateOpponentResultNoteOct. 2Boston BruinsL 4-3 (OT)Skinner allowed four on 30 shots; J.J. Peterka won it at 3:21 of overtimeOct. 4Detroit Red WingsW 3-2First win of the season, held a late leadOct. 5At Pittsburgh PenguinsW 3-2Stevenson's first start as a Jet; Cole Perfetti scored nine seconds after Pittsburgh tied itOct. 7Colorado AvalancheW 3-2Skinner made 32 saves; Connor's winner came from Mark Scheifele

That is not a goaltending story so much as a team story. Three one-goal wins and an overtime loss is the profile of a club that is defending well and finding late goals. Connor's winner against Colorado was his fifth goal of the season, according to JetsNation. Skinner's 32 saves came against an Avalanche team that had not lost yet.

The two goalies Winnipeg is relying on are a long way from Hellebuyck's level on paper. Skinner signed a two-year, $7.5 million contract on July 1 after a 2025-26 split between Edmonton and Pittsburgh in which he posted an .888 save percentage over 50 games. Stevenson, 27, from Drayton Valley, Alta., was claimed off waivers from Washington on Sept. 28; he played four NHL games last season and is in the final year of a contract that pays him $800,000 a season. Petkau, notably, represents Skinner as well as Hellebuyck.

Why the Hellebuyck trade has stalled

Three things are keeping Hellebuyck in limbo, and none of them has changed since the season started.

• The no-movement clause. Hellebuyck has a full no-movement clause for 2026-27, so no trade happens without his approval. Pierre LeBrun has reported that he will not waive it for a Canadian team, which removes Edmonton, Montreal and the rest of the country, Toronto included.
• The price. TSN's Darren Dreger has reported that Winnipeg has not received an offer it considers fair value for an elite goaltender with years left on his contract. Reported suitors have included Carolina, Buffalo and Utah, and Dreger has said teams want him at a discount.
• The contract. Hellebuyck carries an $8.5 million cap hit through 2030-31, five seasons including this one. In a hard-cap league where most contenders are tight, absorbing that number in October usually means sending real salary back.

We laid out the early stages of the standoff in our piece on Hellebuyck refusing to report, and why the clause rules out the Leafs specifically in our no-movement clause explainer.

The calendar works for Winnipeg

The most important date in this negotiation is July 1, 2027. According to multiple reports on the contract's structure, Hellebuyck's full no-movement clause becomes a 10-team no-trade list that day. Once it does, the Jets can trade him to any of the other 21 teams without his sign-off.

The suspension also carries a cost for the player. A suspended player forfeits salary for the days he is out once the regular season begins, so every week of the standoff costs Hellebuyck money, while the Jets save it.

On Oct. 3, before the Jets had won a game, Daily Faceoff's Tyler Yaremchuk asked David Pagnotta whether a strong start from Skinner and Stevenson could change Winnipeg's thinking. Pagnotta said it could, and added that while the Jets would take some futures, the main pieces they want back are players who help immediately. A 3-0-1 start makes that demand easier to hold.

What Winnipeg is really holding

The reason the Jets can afford patience is the quality of the asset. Hellebuyck's 2024-25 season was one of the best goaltending seasons of the decade: 47-12-3 with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage in 63 games, which carried Winnipeg to the Presidents' Trophy and won him the Hart and the Vezina. PuckPedia credits him with nearly 40 goals saved above expected that season.

There is a counterweight, and every buyer knows it. In the 2025 playoffs he posted a .866 save percentage and a 3.08 goals-against average over 13 games. A team trading for Hellebuyck is paying for a regular-season force and betting that the spring numbers were a blip. That is a big reason the offers Dreger has described are coming in low, and why Winnipeg would rather wait for a buyer whose need outweighs the doubt.

LeafsLurker's take: the Jets should not blink

Hellebuyck has every right to want out, and the Jets have every right to hold a valid contract. What they should not do is sell an MVP goaltender at a discount in October because the situation is awkward.

Four games are not proof that Skinner is a starter. His track record says he is a capable 1B, and the Jets' team defence is doing a lot of the work. If the save percentage drops in November, the pressure to trade returns. But that pressure cuts both ways. Contenders who lose a goalie to injury in November and December get desperate too, and their offers improve.

Winnipeg's best outcome is a trade that brings back a top-six forward or a top-four defenceman who plays now, which is exactly what Pagnotta described. Its second-best outcome is waiting until the clause loosens next summer and choosing the buyer itself. Its worst outcome is the one the market is currently offering.

What it means for the Maple Leafs

Toronto is not a suitor. Hellebuyck's refusal to play in Canada closed that door, and Chayka chose a different route in the summer with Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz, a plan we examined in our look at Bobrovsky's start.

Where the Leafs are affected is in the trade market around them. If Buffalo, an Atlantic Division rival, ends up with Hellebuyck, the division gets a lot harder. And if the Jets eventually insist on a defenceman who plays now, they will be shopping in the same aisle as Toronto, which is looking for one too. The Jets also just handed Colorado its first loss; the Leafs, who own the Avalanche's 2027 first-round pick, play Colorado on Oct. 10.

What's next

Nothing in the Hellebuyck case moves on a fixed schedule before next July. Watch three things: Skinner's numbers over the next 10 starts, any injury to a starting goalie on Carolina, Buffalo or Utah, and whether Cheveldayoff's language shifts from "undefined" to anything more specific.

Until then, the Jets have the points, the cap savings from the suspension and the calendar. That is not a bad hand. Follow where Winnipeg and Toronto sit in the NHL standings.