{"id":903440,"date":"2026-09-20T23:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T23:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/903440\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T23:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T23:50:10","slug":"every-canadian-hockey-fan-should-feel-the-chill-of-connor-hellebuycks-trade-request-out-of-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/903440\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Canadian hockey fan should feel the chill of Connor Hellebuyck\u2019s trade request out of Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Connor Hellebuyck has requested a trade from the Winnipeg Jets. The team should not play along with the request, Cathal Kelly writes.Tony Gutierrez\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

When Connor Hellebuyck re-signed in Winnipeg in 2023, it was suggested that he and the team had an understanding. He would choose them, and in return they would tailor the workplace to his needs. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had a good talk with [Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff] before camp,\u201d Hellebuyck told Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman at the time. \u201cHow much he wanted to win. What he was willing to do to win. Those are important conversations to have because a guy could feel that way, and if he never says it, you don\u2019t know. Your mind starts to wander.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every top pro has choices, but Hellebuyck made it seem that by taking almost US$60-million of Winnipeg\u2019s money, he was doing them a favour. That impression was allowed to linger. <\/p>\n

It resurfaced this week when Cheveldayoff was in the midst of explaining why he had just suspended Hellebuyck for refusing to show up to camp. Had the Jets<\/a> promised to trade Hellebuyck if the team wasn\u2019t good enough to suit him?<\/p>\n

Hellebuyck suspension, trade request looms over Winnipeg Jets training camp<\/a><\/p>\n

Cheveldayoff denied it in strangely baroque terms \u2013 \u201cAny notion around that would not have any merit \u201d \u2013 and then segued directly to a defence of the Jets\u2019 competitiveness. The effect was to make it seem that if Hellebuyck is feeling sore, he has at least some reason to be. <\/p>\n

Except he doesn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

The GM doesn\u2019t skate. Only the players do. As such, how good the team is is entirely up to them. <\/p>\n

If Hellebuyck thought the Jets should have been better last year, then maybe he should\u2019ve tried being less crap himself. Having not done that, the acceptable reaction isn\u2019t, \u2018I can\u2019t quite reach the eject button. Can you push it for me?\u2019<\/p>\n

This would be a garden-variety story of entitlement, were it not for the political and civic angles. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Hellebuyck, in front, at U.S. President Donald Trump’s state of the union address, basked in the limelight given to the U.S. hockey team after it won gold at the Olympics.Kenny Holston\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Hellebuyck was one of the adult glee club that was paraded before U.S. Congress after the Americans won Olympic gold. In pictures, he was the guy in front holding his hand over his heart. Part of this is clearly a rebuke of Canada. Add that to the widespread notion that nobody wants to play in Winnipeg, and you have more than a holdout hassle. What you\u2019ve got is an existential crisis.<\/p>\n

If Hellebuyck can whine his way out of town, the Jets should stop bothering with contracts altogether. Just make all deals an at-will situation. Like renting month to month. Maybe they could entice recruits by offering winter hardship bonuses. Cheveldayoff can swing by every morning and clear the snow off the players\u2019 cars. <\/p>\n

Whenever anyone wants to leave, they can just text Chevy and let him know: \u2018T.S. Eliot was wrong. February is the cruellest month. Leaving for Florida.\u2019 <\/p>\n

This is a sport played on ice, and all anyone playing it does is complain about the cold. You don\u2019t hear the Canadian swim team moaning about how wet it is in Vancouver. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re beyond hockey now. This isn\u2019t the Jets standing up for their sports business. It\u2019s the Jets standing up for their city and their country. <\/p>\n

U.S. Olympic gold medal winners shake up the NHL landscape with trade requests<\/a><\/p>\n

Winning this face-off is not about getting proper value back in a swap. It\u2019s too late for that. Any sort of trade is a loss for the Jets. Of dignity, mainly. <\/p>\n

Winning now is about absorbing and redistributing pain. The Jets have to stare Hellebuyck down until he cracks. If they don\u2019t, he\u2019s only the first. <\/p>\n

Were it me, I\u2019d sit the guy forever. I\u2019d burn through whatever\u2019s left of his prime, however that affected this season, or the next, or the next. Some things are more important. After sweating him for years, I\u2019d tell Hellebuyck that the only place I\u2019m willing to trade him is Magnitogorsk. Take it or leave it.<\/p>\n

Because if Hellebuyck is allowed to swan off to a club he chooses, the Jets have given up. Don\u2019t even bother pretending to want to attract the top talent. Everyone in the NHL will know to a certainty what they have to this point only suspected \u2013 that Winnipeg is the Devil\u2019s Island of the NHL. It\u2019s a place that castoffs drift onto, but if the current\u2019s right, you can escape. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Having made his choice in signing a long-term contract with the Jets, Hellebuyck can and should be forced to live with the consequences of it, Cathal Kelly writes.Jeff McIntosh\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Normally, fans of other teams could feel smug about how this is spinning out. It\u2019s fun to watch your opponents flail. <\/p>\n

But every Canadian hockey fan should feel the chill of this. First, Winnipeg. Next, your team. <\/p>\n

The Ottawa Senators avoided a public humiliation by trading Brady Tkachuk when he was still fibbing about wanting to stay, but that doesn\u2019t make it any less of an embarrassment. Ottawa \u2013 birthplace of the Stanley Cup \u2013 is now officially beneath Sunrise, Fla. \u2013 home of a very large Cheesecake Factory \u2013 on the hockey pecking order. <\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s NHL clubs remain the historic and financial foundation of the league, but are in actual danger of becoming second class. What\u2019s the solution to this? An old-school national quota system? Top Canadians to Canada, top Americans to America and everyone draws lots for Swedes. <\/p>\n

Maybe that will happen organically. The problem is that most Canadian-born NHLers prefer America, too. Lower taxes, and it\u2019s never cost any of them a Tim Hortons ad.<\/p>\n

Monday Morning Halfback: Hellebuyck\u2019s trade demand and the contract that could change the NHL<\/a><\/p>\n

The first step in solving the problem is acknowledging it exists \u2013 someone no one connected to the NHL has been willing to do. For now, it\u2019s an exodus without cause. The second step is drawing a line.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t force anyone to come here, and who\u2019d want to? If you need to be convinced that living in any part of this country is some sort of hardship duty, then I\u2019d guess that your idea of culture is a drive-thru dry cleaners. <\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t want Canada, then Canada doesn\u2019t want you. But whether it\u2019s the White House or a Winnipeg Jet, you don\u2019t get to dictate to us the terms of a deal you\u2019ve chosen to go back on. <\/p>\n

Nobody forced Hellebuyck to pick Manitoba \u2013 which, it isn\u2019t often enough said, turned him into the sort of local icon he would never have become anywhere in the U.S.<\/p>\n

But having made his choice, Hellebuyck can and should be forced to live with the consequences of it. If he doesn\u2019t want to play here, he can\u2019t play anywhere. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Connor Hellebuyck has requested a trade from the Winnipeg Jets. The team should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,2922,8023,22073],"class_list":["post-903440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-noastack","tag-topstory","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903440","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=903440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}