Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic wrote today that Winnipeg Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck is looking for a contract with an average annual value around $9.5MM. LeBrun says that teams looking to trade for the 30-year-old are aware of what Hellebuyck’s camp are seeking in contract negotiations. If Hellebuyck were to get that salary it would put him in the same pay bracket as Tampa Bay Lighting goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Hellebuyck was the 2020 Vezina award winner for top goaltender and has a long track record of putting up elite numbers. However, he has had a handful of poor seasons and with teams having just seen the Vegas Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup with Adin Hill between the pipes, there might be a hesitancy to pay a premium in a trade and an expensive cap hit for a goalie who is on the wrong side of 30. You can’t fault Hellebuyck for asking for the moon as he is nominated once again for the Vezina award after a terrific season in Winnipeg posting a 37-25-2 record with a .920 save percentage and a 2.49 goals against average.
In other afternoon notes:
- Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV tweeted today that it appears the Vancouver Canucks have had discussions with defenseman Ethan Bear’s representatives about several contract possibilities. The tweet comes on the heels of a conversation with Bear’s agent Jason Davidson who said that they’ve discussed several options, but a one-year deal may be the way to go for the 25-year-old. It’s an interesting idea from Bear’s camp given that the defender is out until December after undergoing shoulder surgery this week. Bear is a year away from unrestricted free agency and the allure of picking his long term destination may be worth the roll of the dice.
- Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal tweeted today that Bruce Cassidy told reporters that goaltender Logan Thompson is skating and should be 100% by training camp. Thompson started the year as Vegas’ number one goaltender but suffered a lower body injury in February and did not play again. When healthy the 26-year-old posted good numbers going 21-13-3 with a .915 save percentage and 2.65 goals against average. If Thompson is ready to go it could give Vegas leverage in their contract negotiations with pending free agent netminder Adin Hill. Thompson would be a solid fallback option should Hill elect to test the market and move on.
(gawks) … the hell? Connor Hellebucyk has had exactly ONE season — his first full season as a starter, seven years ago — where he was so much as under league average in GSAA and save percentage. He has NEVER had a “poor” season, let alone more than one, at ANY level of play, going back to high school. Sheesh, man.
True, and I’m a big fan of him but still no way I give him that deal.
For much of the past few decades you’d needed either an elite goalie or Chris Osgood to win a Cup.
In the past 5 or 6 years, a bunch of mediocre goalies have won. Eye opening.
Heh, you didn’t need Chris Osgood — one of the most overrated goalies of the post-expansion era — to win either. Playing for THAT team, all Osgood needed to do was not screw up, and for the most part he didn’t.
But yeah, I agree with you: I wouldn’t give Hellebucyk a deal at $9.5 MM either. There’s no one who didn’t think that Price’s or Bobrovsky’s trajectory was anything short of first ballot Hall of Fame, and that they were worth every penny of those max term deals, and everyone who thought so was badly, badly mistaken. So far Hellebucyk’s been remarkably consistent (and the only two other goalies in the last several years who’ve been there are Rask and Vasilevsky), but he’s also 30, and it wouldn’t be astonishing for him to drop off a cliff. I’d give him 9.5 if he was willing to sign a two-year deal, and not otherwise. 9.5 x max term? No way.
While I agree he’s not a $9.5M per goalie, I’d say he’s in the $7M per range and no more than 4 years. Keep in mind that the Jets have never been a defensive club, so keeping busy between the pipes has been his thing.
$10mil per. Walk away. Walk away.
Ask the Panthers about their $10mil per goalie overall.
You mean the one that singlehandedly won the Eastern Conference Championship and took them to the cup final?
yes. the guy who didn’t even start the playoffs he was so mediocre, and the guy who was awful in the finals.
Eh, so Bobrovsky had himself a great 14-game stretch. Spiffy. You can likely say that of any number of goalies. And how far would Florida have gone in 2022 if he’d taken it in his head to remember that he used to be a star then?
That he wasn’t a millstone around Florida’s neck for four weeks this spring doesn’t cancel out that he has been for most of the last four years.
And it’s funny that goalies get this kind of deference. If a McDavid, MacKinnon or Matthews collected their $10+ MM, and had a single 50+ goal season surrounded by four 20-goal seasons, people would be screaming their throats raw.
Rob Blake gave $5m to Cal Petersen.
He wouldbe the one to shell out $9.5m to someone on the wrong side of 30yo.