Winnipeg Jets franchise goaltender Connor Hellebuyck offered scathing criticism of his team\u2019s season, on and off the ice, at his exit interview on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we did this year was unacceptable,\u201d Hellebuyck said. \u201cNo one wants to be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hellebuyck questioned Winnipeg\u2019s level of complacency as an organization, casting doubts on the team\u2019s ability to build a Stanley Cup contender. He made it clear that Winnipeg is his home, but questioned other players\u2019 willingness to come to the city. Most of all, he questioned the Jets\u2019 ability to build a winning team.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you get the pieces that you need? Will the players come? These are always questions that you have in Winnipeg. I\u2019ve made it my home and I like it here, but the majority of the league doesn\u2019t feel the same way,\u201d Hellebuyck said.<\/p>\n
The Jets have had trouble attracting top free agents and trade targets, even when they\u2019ve been atop the NHL standings. Winnipeg shows up on a majority of no-trade clauses in a league that gives up a disproportionate amount of trade protection compared to the NFL, NBA and MLB.<\/p>\n
Now that they have missed the playoffs entirely, Hellebuyck appeared to be sounding the alarm about the Jets\u2019 competitive window.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s winning a Stanley Cup. That\u2019s my goal, and that\u2019s all I have left,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t play this game for the money, I don\u2019t play it for the fame. I do it for my own personal fun, and part of that is winning a Cup. For me, I\u2019m just looking at \u2026 How can I get that? How can I get there?\u201d<\/p>\n
After a discussion about the Jets\u2019 propensity for giving up tipped shots and screens, Hellebuyck suggested Winnipeg created its own bad luck through loose play. He said that, aside from his Olympic gold medal, this season was not nearly as fun as usual.<\/p>\n
When asked whether he felt optimistic about the Jets\u2019 future, Hellebuyck paused briefly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this moment, after going through that, it\u2019s hard,\u201d Hellebuyck said. \u201cIt\u2019s the next day. To all of a sudden come over here and say, \u2018We\u2019re going to be amazing next year after we just did that (miss the playoffs).\u2019 That\u2019s just not how it works \u2026 to take the step back that we did this year just felt very wrong. From the Presidents\u2019 Trophy to this, it felt like this should have never happened. And it did. And I\u2019m part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he signed his seven-year, $8.5 million AAV contract extension in 2023, Hellebuyck said he was motivated by the Jets\u2019 commitment to winning the Stanley Cup. He said on Friday that he continues to believe in the quality of Winnipeg\u2019s core players and thinks \u201cwe\u2019re a very good team.\u201d He said that, in time, everything heals, implying that the Jets\u2019 failed season was still weighing on him like a wound. Still, Hellebuyck admitted that his belief in the team\u2019s ability to win a Stanley Cup was challenged this season.<\/p>\n
Hellebuyck\u2019s longest pause of the lengthy media session came when he was asked about his future in Winnipeg.\u00a0Has he second-guessed his future with the Jets after such a tough season and the tough conversations with management that followed it?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to go and leave any speculation,\u201d Hellebuyck said after several seconds. \u201cI love this city, and I love playing here. The fans have given me so much, and I\u2019ve given so much to the fans. There\u2019s a real connection there. I wish more people around the league would see that and could see that. Am I going to go in and tell you that right now I feel amazing about winning a Cup tomorrow? Like, no. No team out of the playoffs is going to say that. No player out of the playoffs is going to say that. But, you know, you make your decisions, and you live by them. As time goes by, you try to re-evaluate and then, honestly, as an athlete, the only thing you can do is put your best foot forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hellebuyck\u2019s status as the defending Hart Trophy winner as the league\u2019s most valuable player and his gold medal-winning performance for Team USA at the Olympics imply he can still play at a high level, but his brilliance has always been rooted in the speed with which he reads the play in front of him. The Jets created chaos in their own zone this season. That\u2019s not the order that Hellebuyck is used to.<\/p>\n
How are the Jets meant to help their star goaltender deliver the results he seeks to deliver? Does GM Kevin Cheveldayoff need to make major moves this offseason to address his depleted roster?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a great question for Chevy \u2014 it really is,\u201d Hellebuyck said. \u201cFrom my perspective, complacency is not going to get us moving forward. So something has got to happen. I\u2019m not going to just sit here and throw every guy under the bus because, honestly, I\u2019m a goalie and I know goaltending really well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t say, \u2018Well, this forward did this and that defenceman did that.\u2019 That\u2019s not my spot. I believe in every guy giving their A-plus effort every single night. As a teammate, I can really rally behind that and really cherish those moments with those guys. But to just put that same product on the ice, I don\u2019t think it worked for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Jets franchise goaltender Connor Hellebuyck offered scathing criticism of his team\u2019s season, on and off the ice,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82,449],"class_list":{"0":"post-611261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-winnipeg-jets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}