A year in which Connor Hellebuyck can keep rising through the ranks of the greatest goalies of all time
Connor Hellebuyck is already #1 in pretty much all of the major goaltending stats in Winnipeg Jets history. Since being drafted in the 5th round, 130th overall in the 2012 NHL entry draft, Hellebuyck has been nothing short of a terrific goalie. Now I know the big question remains if Hellebuyck can prove himself in the playoffs, but that isn’t the topic of discussion today.
Despite some poor results in the 2023-24 playoffs, Hellebuyck himself said that he felt (key word felt) like he was playing well in the playoffs. The team behind Hellebuyck wasn’t at its best either, but part of being a goalie is still thinking about the team as a whole rather than being too focused on your own play. If Hellebuyck can carry that mindset into the 2024-25 regular season, he can achieve a milestone that only 39 goalies all-time have achieved: 300 career wins.
Among active goaltenders, Hellebuyck sits 8th all-time for career wins, with a total of 275. This number is more impressive when you look among the 7 goalies ahead of Hellebuyck in wins, only Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy is younger. This becomes a factor as Hellebuyck continues his climb on the all-time leaderboard for wins. Today’s goaltenders are far different than of the past. You’ll no longer see a starting goalie play 70+ games in a season, as the backup position has become more valuable. In return, goalies hope to be more durable, leading to less injuries and longer careers.
If you remember back to my article about a summary of Jets players that should reach milestones in the 2024-25 season, I included Hellebuyck reaching 300 career wins. The last 2 years, Hellebuyck won 37 games each season. This total is tied for 2nd only to Hellebuyck’s 44 win season in 2017-18, which may end up as a tough number to beat in the rest of his career. Regardless if the Jets take a step back from last season or not, it’s a pretty safe play to say that Hellebuyck will get 25 wins this season, barring an injury.
I mentioned already that Hellebuyck is #1 in almost all goalie categories in Jets 2.0 history, but what’s more impressive is by how much Hellebuyck is in the lead. Granted, the Jets 2.0 haven’t been around for ages, but you still have to take a moment to recognize Hellebuyck’s achievements thus far. If Hellebuyck reaches 29 wins this season, he will have a total of 304 wins. That number is double what Ondrej Pavelec achieved (152) during his time with the Thrashers and Jets 2.0. In terms of shutouts, Hellebuyck already has 37, which is 20 above Pavelec and just a few shutouts away from being top-50 in the NHL’s all-time list.
But back to the milestone to watch for this season, the 300 win mark. While a goalie’s win total is somewhat reflective of the team’s play, you can’t help but look at Hellebuyck’s career totals and averages thus far that have helped get him to 275 wins already. Hellebuyck’s career save percentage is .917%, which is well-above the league average. The league average when Hellebuyck joined the NHL was around .913, but the average has since dropped in 2023-24 to .903. The same can be said with goals against average (GAA). Hellebuyck’s career GAA is 2.62, and the current league average is around 2.92.
At this rate, the next question regarding Hellebuyck is will he be a hall of famer? I think a Stanley Cup or another Vezina will be required to have him enter the conversation, but he’s well on his way at this time. 275 wins, 2 Vezina trophies and the Jets franchise record holder for game played, wins, saves, and shutouts. Hellebuyck is also on pace to become the American goalie with the most career wins all-time. Jonathan Quick (who remains active) sits at 393 wins, so Hellebuyck will need to need to continue at a 30-win rate for around 4 seasons to achieve this record.
All of this is to say that Hellebuyck deserves his respect as the current greatest Jets goalie of all-time. The big 300th career win should happen sometime around January or February 2025, all depending on how the Jets upcoming season unfolds. It’s always a good feeling going into a season with a #1 goalie that you can trust, and the Jets have their guy in Hellebuyck for at least the next 6 seasons. The milestone watch will be on for Hellebuyck this season, and Jets fans should be excited to see what’s in store next for Hellebuyck’s so far wonderful career.
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Old NHL trades are always a fun talking point during the NHL off-season. Trades in the NHL today seem to be so carefully coordinated, where as back long ago trades were not done with the same level of consideration. I’m sure you’ve also heard of some weird trade returns from the past, such as a player for some unique future considerations, or a trade involving multiple players with conditional draft picks included.
Today, I’m taking you way back to some notable trades made by the original Winnipeg Jets. This team played before I was even born, but you may or may not remember some of these players and trades that I’m about to mention. The current (2011-now) Jets have a relatively short trade history, and this summer I already looked back at a few notable ones from the past, including the Stastny and Dubois trades. But now it’s time to flashback to the 90s, to examine some trades the Jets made involving players you might not commonly think of as being remembered for their playing time with the Jets.
If you want to see the full list of Jets trades, check it out on NHL trade tracker. The 1st trade (going from most recent to oldest) that surprised me involved Tie Domi. The Jets sent Tie Domi to the Leafs in exchange for Mike Eastwood and a 1995 3rd round pick. Domi went on to play the rest of his career with the Leafs, and is now remembered as one of the best tough guys from the 90s / 2000s. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know until I saw this trade that Domi played 3 seasons with the Jets early in his career.
The 2nd trade is one from 1993 involving hall of fame defenceman Phil Housley. I knew that Housley played a few seasons in Winnipeg, but something I didn’t know was that he had his best season of his career with the Jets. In the 1992-93 season Housley scored 18 goals and added 79 assists for 97 points in 80 games. Then the Jets traded him to the Blues? I would need to look up the backstory as to why that happened, but in return the Jets acquired 2 players that would have themselves solid NHL careers.
Nelson Emerson, one of the players acquired, had his best season of his career in his 1st of 2 seasons with the Jets, scoring 74 points. Stephane Quintal was the other player acquired, and he also played 2 seasons for the Jets following the trade. Quintal collected his 2nd best point total of his career (26) in his 1st year with the Jets. Meanwhile, Housley went on to play for the Blues for just one season, before finishing his career with a handful of other teams.
The 3rd trade is an infamous one that is an example of a trade that would only have happened back in the old NHL. The Jets traded forward Kris Draper to the Detroit Red Wings for future considerations. But not just any future considerations, the Jets received a singular dollar.
$1 for Draper, who went on to have a very successful 17 seasons with the Red Wings, highlighted by 4 Stanley Cup championships. Draper was never a super offensive player, but his two-way play style allowed him to be a valuable teammate during the Red Wings “golden era” in the late 90s and mid 2000s. Just a weird and unfortunate trade for the Jets here… I wonder what they bought with that one dollar?
The 4th trade involves the newest Jets head coach Scott Arniel. After 5 seasons with the Jets, Arniel was sent to the Boston Bruins for future considerations. Arniel had his best NHL season in his 3rd season with the Jets where he collected 56 points. After Arniel’s lenghty coaching career within the Jets organization, including the Manitoba Moose in the AHL and as the Jets assistant coach, Arniel finds himself as the main bench boss for the 2024-25 season. I wonder if he’ll bring up that trade with the team at some point?
The 5th and final trade made by the original Jets that was noteworthy (this time not for the player) was the Jets 1st ever official trade. June 9th, 1979 (the year the Jets joined the NHL from the WHA) the Jets acquired a 1980 7th round pick from the Pittsburgh Penguins. The return? The Jets promised the Penguins not to claim Kim Clackson as a “priority selection” from their WHA franchise. I remember back when the Vegas Golden Knights joined the NHL, and they made some of these unique “promise” trades during their expansion draft, some of which ended up paying off in their favour. The Seattle Kraken didn’t have the same expansion draft luck as a result, but regardless, it’s a unique type of trade that is always a possibility during expansion.
There’s 5 interesting, unique and maybe even wacky trades that were made by the original Winnipeg Jets. As mentioned earlier, some of the players involved in the trades may have played just a few years for the Jets, which is why they usually aren’t “remembered” as Jets. I’m sure I missed a few other classic trades made by the original Jets, but these were just a few that caught my attention at 1st glance. Now it’s time to see if the 2024 Jets make any interesting trades before the 2024-25 season begins in 3 months time.