TSN’s Hockey Insiders with the latest on the Jets and Connor Hellebuyck, Chris Tanev’s injury status, why a Josh Anderson extension is more likely than the UFA market, the Alex DeBrincat extension, Vegas’ non-sellout streak continuing and Landon DuPont’s start to the NCAA season.

James Duthie: Your insiders tonight, Chris Johnston and Darren Dreger. One of the stories of the season so far, the fact that the Jets enter Thursday 4-1-1 without Connor Hellebuyck, and suddenly there are these little whispers out there that Hellebuyck could possibly return. Is that feasible, Dregs?

Darren Dreger: Well, I mean, it’s a developing story, just the file of Connor Hellebuyck and the Winnipeg Jets because he has not yet been traded. I understand the media speculation around this suggesting that perhaps Hellebuyck wants to return to the Jets because he’s literally hemorrhaging money to this point early in the regular season.

That is not the focus of Kevin Cheveldayoff. The Jets are still focused on trying to trade Connor Hellebuyck. Their good start allows them to be patient. Their good goaltending is Stu Skinner, and Clay Stevenson kind of makes this story a sidebar, but it’s still out there.

Should Sabres take another shot at Hellebuyck? Bryan Hayes, Jeff O’Neill and Jamie McLennan are joined by TSN Hockey and MSG Sabres analyst Martin Biron to discuss the Buffalo Sabres situation in the crease and should they try and acquire Connor Hellebuyck again.

Duthie: In Toronto, Chris Tanev, the best defenceman on the Leafs, his status changed to week-to-week after an upper-body injury against Colorado. I never know what week-to-week means, CJ, but it sounds worse than day-to-day. What does it mean?

Chris Johnston: Well, it certainly is worse than day-to-day, and it tells you that they don’t know themselves exactly how long it’s going to be. And I think what’s most significant here to note is that this change in status comes after the Maple Leafs return from the road, allowed Chris Tanev to be back in Toronto and get a chance to be in front of more of the Leafs’ staff and get to this point where they’re still not willing to really discuss at all what the nature of the injury is, if it’s related anything he went through last season and even put a more defined timetable on it.

And at this point in time, it seems as though the Leafs aren’t focused on any short-term help. They haven’t put Chris Tanev, for example, on long-term injured reserve at this point in time, but that is something they could do if this goes on for several weeks.

Duthie: In Montreal, day-to-day, week to week, Josh Anderson’s been really good so far in the early weeks of the season. Does that speed up contract extension talks, Dregs?

Dreger: Well, in a perfect world, it would, yes. He is a pending unrestricted free agent and a long way from July 1st, we can appreciate this.

What I can tell you here is that Josh Anderson and Kent Hughes, the GM for the Canadiens, met prior to the start of the year, and Josh Anderson made it abundantly clear as a designated leader that he wants to stay long term in Montreal.

We know that Hughes and the Habs have been actively trying to acquire a forward. So that’s been their priority. They are going to get into extension negotiations, I would expect sooner rather than later. But here’s also something that’s noteworthy. He’s represented by Darren Ferris. And Darren Ferris is a player agent who likes to march his top clients as close to July 1st or past July 1st as he can. And that is not the plan of the Canadiens and it sounds like Anderson wants to stay.

The Talking Point: What’s wrong with Canadiens goalie Dobes? Jakub Dobes’ season has not gotten off to the start anyone expected with his lone win coming in the opener against the Maple Leafs. It’s been all downhill for the netminder since then and TSN Hockey analyst Cameron Gaunce examines what has been going wrong for Dobes and what he can to do remedy things.

Johnston: And another significant contract came down this week in Detroit where the Red Wings signed Alex DeBrincat to a seven-year extension carrying a $13 million annual cap hit.

And what’s significant about this deal, guys, is that if it happened a year ago, it almost certainly would be maybe a million, perhaps even more than that, less on a long-term deal. But that’s a sign of just how much the NHL’s pay range has escalated, particularly for players at the top. And the fact that DeBrincat goes over that magical sort of $12 million mark tells us something about where things have been.

That used to be the company of only players winning Hart trophies and Rocket Richards and the like. There were only six players last season with a cap hit in the NHL of $12 million or above. It’s going to be three times that at least next season with 18 contracts, including DeBrincat’s, already in that realm and that doesn’t include Quinn Hughes, doesn’t include Jason Robertson or Nikita Kucherov. Three more players that need contracts that are going to be pricey next season.

Duthie: A higher cap means the league is doing really well, but in Vegas after 300-plus straight sellouts, three straight non-sellouts and a number of CJ?

Johnston: There are, but it’s a significant development for the Golden Knights. They’ve never not sold out until a week ago, and now this string is going this way.

And look, anything with ticketing involves the economy. It involves obviously fewer people travelling, and obviously a city like Las Vegas is huge for the tourism industry.

But in this case, the Golden Knights have made a conscious decision to stop selling as many tickets to ticket brokers. And in the past, those tickets were counted towards their sellout streak. In the interim now, they’re having a building that isn’t full, but they view it as sort of short-term pain for long-term gain.

So even though T-Mobile Arena until this point has always been a place where it’s been sold out, expect more of this season as the Golden Knights look to get ahead of what they thought was going to be a long-term problem if they didn’t address it now.

What is a player comparison for Landon DuPont? Can anyone challenge Landon DuPont for the first overall pick in the 2027 NHL draft? Is there any past or current player he can be compared to? Craig Button joins SC with Jay Onrait to weigh in.

Duthie: Tell you what, smaller building, but it’s been rocking at the University of Michigan because the Wolverines look great. They’re undefeated and all eyes, Dregs, on Landon Dupont.

Dreger: Yeah, I mean, Craig Button says that he is the clear frontrunner to go first overall in the June NHL draft, and teams are paying attention to this quick start by both Landon Dupont and Michigan.

He’s got five points in four games. He’s a top-pair defenseman, first on the power play. Big weekend ahead as Michigan takes on Denver. A team, by the way, that recruited DuPont hard. Calgary, Vancouver, the bottom feeders of the National Hockey League watching his every move. But James, they’ve stopped short of the t-shirts that say Losin’ For Landon.

And Michigan ranks second in the nation, right behind the defending champs, the University of Denver.