{"id":893017,"date":"2026-09-12T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/893017\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T13:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T13:00:12","slug":"mark-scheifele-connor-hellebuyck-and-winnipegs-efforts-to-rebuild-a-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/893017\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Scheifele, Connor Hellebuyck and Winnipeg\u2019s efforts to rebuild a winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck signed matching $8.5 million contract extensions in 2023, it was meant to signal a new era of Winnipeg Jets competitiveness.<\/p>\n

Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff changed the way he approached business, opening up to his star players about how and when Winnipeg could compete for the Stanley Cup \u2014 and Scheifele and Hellebuyck bought into his plans. Cheveldayoff characterized their discussions as a \u201cheart-to-heart\u201d conversation, in which the Jets\u2019 front office shared more about Winnipeg\u2019s challenges and ambitions \u201cthan we have ever done.\u201d Winnipeg\u2019s franchise cornerstones, satisfied by Cheveldayoff\u2019s plans to build a winner, ended an offseason of doubt by doubling down on Winnipeg \u2014 for seven years each.<\/p>\n

Three years later, Hellebuyck is adamant that his time in Winnipeg is over. He followed April\u2019s criticism of the Jets\u2019 ability to build a winner with a public trade request<\/a> in August. He\u2019s not expected to attend training camp, having gone from praising \u201cwhat (Cheveldayoff) was willing to do to win\u201d to criticizing the team\u2019s complacency<\/a>. Whatever the impact of Hellebuyck\u2019s gold medal-winning experience with Team USA and return to Winnipeg afterward, it\u2019s clear he doubts the Jets\u2019 ability to win.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t Scheifele, who bought the same sales pitch that Hellebuyck did in 2023, have the same doubts?<\/p>\n

\u201cI still believe in this team,\u201d Scheifele said at the NHL media tour in Las Vegas this week.<\/p>\n

Then he made his pitch \u2014 the same one Josh Morrissey and Adam Lowry made this summer. Scheifele spoke to the quality of Jets teammates such as Morrissey, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi. He spoke to Winnipeg\u2019s much-needed influx of team speed, citing Mario Ferraro and Stuart Skinner as \u201csome really good pieces\u201d and praised Winnipeg\u2019s top young players, including Viggo Bj\u00f6rck, Elias Salomonsson, and Brayden Yager. He said he hopes to help those players \u201clearn the game\u201d at the NHL level, then reiterated his belief in the Jets\u2019 group.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019m really excited to see some of the young guys come into their game,\u201d Mark Scheifele said, \u201cand hoping I can be a part of helping them learn the game a little bit, too.\u201d (James Carey Lauder \/ Imagn Images via Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exactly the pitch a Jets mainstay would make. It\u2019s the one Scheifele has to make as a leader on a team facing doubt after it missed the playoffs last season. For that reason, it\u2019s easy to dismiss Scheifele\u2019s words as just that: words. Then you talk to Scheifele\u2019s teammates. If Hellebuyck is right and Winnipeg\u2019s Cup odds are low \u2014 if what\u2019s left for the Jets players is a fruitless battle against an inevitable rebuild \u2014 then there are lessons to be learned from what players are doing.<\/p>\n

Before heading to Las Vegas for the media tour, Scheifele skated with current and future Jets teammates in Winnipeg. One of those players was Yager, the 21-year-old prospect centre whom Cheveldayoff cited this summer as a future second-line centre solution. Yager is not a lock for NHL stardom \u2014 he scored 30 points in 68 AHL games last season \u2014 nor is he guaranteed to make the Jets\u2019 roster out of camp. But Scheifele dedicated time to work with Yager on his game.<\/p>\n

Scheifele\u2019s attention to detail struck Yager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get the chance to skate with him, it\u2019s not just him watching you and then going home. He watches you and tries to help you with your game, which is an even better quality. As a leader, he cares about his future teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheifele, 33, set personal bests with 67 assists and 103 points last season. Yager describes Scheifele\u2019s biggest strengths as his poise and hockey IQ \u2014 two seemingly ineffable qualities Yager sees in the way Scheifele protects the puck along the boards. Scheifele\u2019s elite understanding of defensive coverage helps him stay calm with his back to the play, waiting for the right time to centre the puck between sticks and skates into the slot for scoring chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were to watch him, you\u2019d think he\u2019s just doing backhand passes and turning,\u201d Yager says. \u201cIf you ask him about it, it\u2019s so much more detailed than what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of Scheifele spending time teaching Yager and Winnipeg\u2019s other young players is not new. Scheifele is fond of teaching the subtleties of body position, leverage and ways to gain time and space against defencemen. At past Jets camps, I\u2019ve watched Scheifele and Yager work on skills as specific as how to receive a pass with the heel or toe of the stick depending on how the puck is spinning \u2014 the faster a player can kill the spin, Yager said Scheifele taught him, the faster he can make his next play. Yager has also been invited to skate and train with Scheifele in Calgary during the offseason \u2014 something he took advantage of before last season\u2019s training camp.<\/p>\n

To borrow a euphemism, grass tends to be greener where you water it. Scheifele may have doubts and fears about winning a Stanley Cup in Winnipeg that Hellebuyck does. Scheifele is investing his time into Winnipeg\u2019s future without knowing what comes next. Yager could make the NHL this season. He could emerge as a second- or third-line centre someday. Bj\u00f6rck could do the same, perhaps climbing as high as the first line. There\u2019s no guarantee that it happens at all \u2014 or that it happens fast enough to align with Scheifele\u2019s peak.<\/p>\n

Scheifele is maintaining his optimism, whether or not Winnipeg\u2019s 26th-place finish says that he \u201cshould\u201d \u2014 and the disposition should help him whether or not that optimism proves to have had merit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for the future, too,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think we got a really good player in Viggo. And at the same time, I was in Winnipeg and skating with Brayden Yager, who looks really good. He looks like he had a great summer of training. Brad Lambert, even Danil Zhilkin, and I skated with him a couple of times in the summer. We got some young guys, Elias Salomonsson, who obviously had surgery in the offseason but showed some real promise last year. I\u2019m really excited to see some of the young guys come into their game and hoping I can be a part of helping them learn the game a little bit, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

What if it doesn\u2019t work?<\/p>\n

This is Cheveldayoff\u2019s territory. The GM is expected to speak at training camp next week, with Hellebuyck\u2019s trade request \u2014 or perhaps even a Hellebuyck trade \u2014 likely to take up much of the conversation. If a trade hasn\u2019t been completed, Hellebuyck\u2019s absence could likely be due to a team suspension.<\/p>\n

But Winnipeg\u2019s predicament is bigger than the Hellebuyck trade. Its Cup-contending viability is in question \u2014 not just in the short term, with Skinner taking over from Hellebuyck, but also for as long as the Central Division remains as star-studded as it is. It was easy to imagine a path into the first round if Hellebuyck returned to his Vezina Trophy-winning form in Winnipeg. But the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild and Utah Mammoth are good reasons to be skeptical of a deep Jets run. Scheifele\u2019s mentorship of Yager and other Jets youth is noble; it\u2019s probably not enough to make them impact players while he\u2019s posting 103-point seasons.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important for Cheveldayoff to return to the source of his success. If he has a plan to avoid a rebuild, Jets fans deserve to know how that plan works. Fans need to hear reasons before they can believe them \u2014 just like Scheifele and Hellebuyck did when they first signed their extensions.<\/p>\n

If he doesn\u2019t, then the market \u2014 Jets players included \u2014 needs a realistic plan for what appears to be a new chapter in Jets history. Hellebuyck would do well, too, to share his reasoning if his goal is to protect his legacy with the club where he won three Vezina Trophies and one Hart Trophy as league MVP.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, there is something heartening about Scheifele\u2019s example as a mentor to Jets youth. Whatever happens next in this difficult moment in Jets history, he\u2019s doing the best he can to help with the skills available to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck signed matching $8.5 million contract extensions in 2023, it was meant to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073,449],"class_list":["post-893017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893017","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=893017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}