{"id":448437,"date":"2026-08-31T00:24:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T00:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/448437\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T00:24:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T00:24:33","slug":"are-san-jose-sharks-a-fit-for-connor-hellebuyck-not-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/448437\/","title":{"rendered":"Are San Jose Sharks a fit for Connor Hellebuyck? Not right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 The San Jose Sharks signaled their intention<\/a> to become a more competitive team this season by committing tens of millions of dollars<\/a> over the summer to bring in defensemen Jacob Trouba, Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring and winger Mason Marchment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, reaching the postseason is the bare minimum for us,\u201d Marchment recently told NHL.com.<\/a> \u201cIf we\u2019re not thinking in those terms, then we\u2019re not thinking the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now comes a question about whether the Sharks should push more poker chips<\/a> to the middle of the table.<\/p>\n

With training camps set to open in roughly three weeks, Connor Hellebuyck on Thursday went public with a request to be traded<\/a> from the Winnipeg Jets, where he\u2019s spent his entire 11-year NHL career<\/a> and won three Vezina trophies as the league\u2019s best goalie.<\/p>\n

But after winning the Presidents\u2019 Trophy as the league\u2019s best regular-season team in 2024-25, when Hellebuyck captured the Hart Trophy<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Hellebuyck, who has a full no-movement clause in his contract for this upcoming season, is reportedly open<\/a> to being traded to a variety of teams, not just ones that are already established. The Buffalo Sabres might be front-runners<\/a> for Hellebuyck\u2019s services.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy position has not changed, and I believe moving on is the best path forward for me and my family,\u201d Hellebuyck, Team USA\u2019s Olympic gold-medal-winning goalie, said in a statement. \u201c(I) hope a resolution can be reached soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should the Sharks be interested?<\/p>\n

A trade for Hellebuyck could potentially transform the Sharks from a team expected to make a playoff push this season to one that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

As he\u2019s amassed the league\u2019s deepest pipeline of prospects, Sharks general manager Mike Grier has been patient throughout the rebuild and has often said he doesn\u2019t want to spend young assets on quick fixes. But it stands to reason that he\u2019d do his due diligence on Hellebuyck to see what the Jets\u2019 ask would be, if he hasn\u2019t already.<\/p>\n

Asked in July about the Sharks\u2019 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, \u201cif players like him become available, I think we\u2019re getting to the point now where we\u2019ve 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\u2019ll definitely be looking into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, going after Hellebuyck would involve some risk for the Sharks.<\/p>\n

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,<\/a> presently have $3.3 million in cap space for this upcoming season, and might need to place Logan Couture<\/a> 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\u2019t expected to play again.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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,<\/a> was 16th in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes (.097).<\/p>\n

Hellebuyck\u2019s playoff numbers are not pretty, either. In the Jets\u2019 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\u2019 defense and structure \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 is something the Sharks would have to ask themselves.<\/p>\n

One would think the Jets would want Askarov as part of the return for Hellebuyck.<\/p>\n

Askarov had an inconsistent first full year in the NHL, no question, as he was 27th on MoneyPuck\u2019s goals saved above expected list. But he\u2019s still just 24, and one has to believe his best years are ahead of him, with the potential to backstop several Sharks playoff runs.<\/p>\n

If Hellebuyck comes to San Jose and Askarov is shipped to Winnipeg, he\u2019d likely get 50-55 starts with the Sharks, with Alex Nedeljkovic playing the remainder.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s just a matter of where Grier wants to go from here, and how much of the long-term future he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

After a series of big moves to get to this point, it may be Grier\u2019s biggest decision yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 The San Jose Sharks signaled their intention to become a more competitive team this season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[401,402,181,404,182,88,90,89,98,403,94685,127],"class_list":["post-448437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-hockey","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nhl","tag-pm-report","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks-alert","tag-social-alert","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}