SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks signaled their intention to become a more competitive team this season by committing tens of millions of dollars over the summer to bring in defensemen Jacob Trouba, Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring and winger Mason Marchment.
“For me, reaching the postseason is the bare minimum for us,” Marchment recently told NHL.com. “If we’re not thinking in those terms, then we’re not thinking the right way.”
Now comes a question about whether the Sharks should push more poker chips to the middle of the table.
With training camps set to open in roughly three weeks, Connor Hellebuyck on Thursday went public with a request to be traded from the Winnipeg Jets, where he’s spent his entire 11-year NHL career and won three Vezina trophies as the league’s best goalie.
But after winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s best regular-season team in 2024-25, when Hellebuyck captured the Hart Trophy as the NHL player most valuable to his team, the Jets missed the playoffs this past season and might be challenged in the years ahead to get back to that title-contending level.
Hellebuyck, who has a full no-movement clause in his contract for this upcoming season, is reportedly open to being traded to a variety of teams, not just ones that are already established. The Buffalo Sabres might be front-runners for Hellebuyck’s services.
“My position has not changed, and I believe moving on is the best path forward for me and my family,” Hellebuyck, Team USA’s Olympic gold-medal-winning goalie, said in a statement. “(I) hope a resolution can be reached soon.”
Should the Sharks be interested?
A trade for Hellebuyck could potentially transform the Sharks from a team expected to make a playoff push this season to one that’s closer to Stanley Cup contention. After years of slowly rebuilding through the draft and various trades, the Sharks would suddenly be in the fast lane, expected to keep up with Western Conference powers like Vegas, Edmonton, Colorado, Minnesota and Dallas.
There’s no soft-pedaling it. By spending the assets needed to get the 33-year-old Hellebuyck, like potentially parting with second-year goalie Yaroslav Askarov and likely other young assets, the Sharks would clearly be in win-now mode, all the way.
As he’s amassed the league’s deepest pipeline of prospects, Sharks general manager Mike Grier has been patient throughout the rebuild and has often said he doesn’t want to spend young assets on quick fixes. But it stands to reason that he’d do his due diligence on Hellebuyck to see what the Jets’ ask would be, if he hasn’t already.
Asked in July about the Sharks’ potential interest in Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski, who just won the Norris Trophy and has two years remaining on his contract, Grier said, “if players like him become available, I think we’re getting to the point now where we’ve made a lot of picks, we have a lot of prospects and young players that if we can really make our team better and add a real all-star caliber-type player, we’ll definitely be looking into it.”
Still, going after Hellebuyck would involve some risk for the Sharks.
Grier would have some cost certainty with Hellebuyck, who is signed for five more years at a reasonable cap hit of $8.5 million per season. The Sharks, per PuckPedia, presently have $3.3 million in cap space for this upcoming season, and might need to place Logan Couture on season-ending long-term injured reserve to create enough room to fit Hellebuyck. Couture, with a chronic groin-area injury, has an $8 million cap hit for this season but isn’t expected to play again.
But one must wonder how many quality years Hellebuyck, who turns 34 next May, has left after playing 333 games, including regular season and playoffs, since the start of the 2021-22 season?
Behind an elite defense, Hellebuyck was brilliant in leading the Americans to Olympic gold in Milan in February, amassing a .956 save percentage in five games, including a memorable 41-save performance in the 2-1 overtime win over Canada in the gold medal game.
This past season with the Jets, though, Hellebuyck had a pedestrian .895 save percentage, the lowest of his NHL career, in going 23-23-11 in 57 games. Among the 29 NHL goalies who played in at least 40 games last season, Hellebuyck, per moneypuck.com, was 16th in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes (.097).
Hellebuyck’s playoff numbers are not pretty, either. In the Jets’ last three playoff appearances, Hellebuyck is 8-15 with an unsightly .870 save percentage. How much of that was on Hellebuyck and how much was on the Jets’ defense and structure — or lack thereof — is something the Sharks would have to ask themselves.
One would think the Jets would want Askarov as part of the return for Hellebuyck.
Askarov had an inconsistent first full year in the NHL, no question, as he was 27th on MoneyPuck’s goals saved above expected list. But he’s still just 24, and one has to believe his best years are ahead of him, with the potential to backstop several Sharks playoff runs.
If Hellebuyck comes to San Jose and Askarov is shipped to Winnipeg, he’d likely get 50-55 starts with the Sharks, with Alex Nedeljkovic playing the remainder.
With an impressive cadre of young players, supported by a stable of respected veterans, the Sharks will likely be a competitive team this season, regardless of who their goalie is. It’s just a matter of where Grier wants to go from here, and how much of the long-term future he’s willing to sacrifice to get better right now, and perhaps have a greater chance of bringing a first Cup to San Jose in the next year or two.
After a series of big moves to get to this point, it may be Grier’s biggest decision yet.