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Connor Hellebuyck Wins 2023-24 Vezina Trophy

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Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck had one of the best seasons of his career in 2023-24, helping lead the Jets to a playoff appearance.  He was rewarded for his efforts as the league announced that he has won the Vezina Trophy, awarded “to the goaltender adjudged to be the best at his position,” as selected by NHL general managers.

The 31-year-old also won the Jennings Trophy, going to the team that allowed the fewest regular-season goals.  Technically, that one is a shared award but it carries a games-played requirement of 25 games, a threshold that backup Laurent Brossoit didn’t reach.

That’s because Hellebuyck has been one of the NHL’s workhorses between the pipes, playing in at least 60 games in each of the last three years.  He posted a 2.39 GAA with a .921 SV% in 2023-24, his best numbers since the 2017-18 campaign, a year that saw him finish as the runner-up for the Vezina.  Hellebuyck allowed three or fewer goals in 50 of his 60 total appearances, including a pair of 10-game streaks with two or fewer allowed, becoming the third goaltender in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) to post multiple stretches like that in a single season.

As a result of his performance, Hellebuyck was a near-unanimous, selection, taking 31 of 32 first-place votes.  Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky was the only other player to get a first-place vote although he finished third in voting points behind Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko, who was on all but two ballots.  A total of nine netminders appeared on at least one GM’s ballot.

Hellebuyck was Winnipeg’s first-ever Vezina winner when he took home the prize in 2020.  He joins Bobrovsky as the only active netminders with multiple wins under their belts.

Jets Sign Dylan DeMelo To Four-Year Extension

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11:17 a.m.: DeMelo’s deal breaks down as follows, per PuckPedia. It carries a 10-team no-trade list throughout.

2024-25: $5.5MM base salary
2025-26: $5.0MM base salary
2026-27: $5.0MM base salary
2027-28: $4.1MM base salary

10:19 a.m.: The Winnipeg Jets have signed defenseman Dylan DeMelo to a four-year contract extension with an AAV of $4.9MM, per Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). DeMelo was set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

DeMelo, 31, will drive through the majority of his remaining career on this deal, cementing his spot as an evergreen piece of the Jets lineup. Winnipeg traded for DeMelo ahead of the 2020 Trade Deadline, sending a third-round draft pick back to the Ottawa Senators and extending the defender ahead of the 2020-21 season, signing him to a four-year, $12MM contract. He performed well on the deal, recording career-highs in scoring with 27 points last year and then 31 points this season. DeMelo has climbed his way into more and more of a role with strong play, working from an average of 17 minutes of ice time at the start of his deal to nearly 22 minutes this season.

The move to Winnipeg wasn’t the first of DeMelo’s career, having previously been one of the pieces returned to the Ottawa Senators in the legendary Erik Karlsson trade. DeMelo was joined by Joshua Norris, Chris Tierney, Rudolfs Balcers, and the picks used to select Tim Stutzle, Jamieson Rees, and Zack Ostapchuk. DeMelo went on to play a limited 126 games with the Senators, though he managed a productive 32 points from a second-pair role.

Through nine years in the league and three different teams, DeMelo has totaled 554 games and 144 points. He’s been a staunch defensive presence on second pairings since his debut in 2015 and is now clawing his way into top-line minutes. He’ll look to hang onto that role as he kicks off another long-term deal with the Jets – this time $1.9MM richer than his salary last season.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports

Rutger McGroarty Reportedly Seeking Trade From Jets Organization

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Earlier today on 32 Thoughts with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek, the former indicated that a prospect for the Winnipeg Jets, Rutger McGroarty, had been brought up in trade talks over the last few days. In a follow-up report, Murat Ates of The Athletic wrote an article at length describing that “The league source tells The Athletic that McGroarty feels his path to the NHL is best suited in another organization.”

McGroarty was drafted by the Jets organization with the 14th overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft after future teammate Frank Nazar went one selection ahead of him to the Chicago Blackhawks. Fast forwarding to this season, McGroarty saw Nazar and teammate Gavin Brindley sign entry-level contracts with their respective teams; while McGroarty committed to the University of Michigan for his junior season on April 16th.

The article from Ates illustrated the disconnect primarily came from the Jets organization and McGroarty disagreeing on his level of play, with the latter firmly believing he could immediately contribute to an NHL lineup. With a passing attempt at signing McGroarty to an entry-level contract once the 2023-24 NCAA ended, Winnipeg was unwilling to make any assurances of playing time to McGroarty, leading to him passing up an entry-level deal.

It is difficult to argue with McGroarty’s position, as he is beginning to look like a bargain pick at 14th overall. This past season with the Wolverines, McGroarty finished with 16 goals and 52 points in 36 games which finished second on his team and was good for 9th in the nation. Although there is never a guarantee that McGroarty would have cracked the Jets’ roster, keeping in hindsight the team is likely moving on from Nikolaj Ehlers and Tyler Toffoli this summer, the team could use a cost-effective addition to their top six.

Due to the reality of a few top-six forwards heading for greener pastures this summer, Winnipeg may opt to move McGroarty for immediate help up front in the form of veteran talent, especially given the fact that they do not appear to think he is ready for big minutes in the NHL. Nevertheless, the Jets organization holds most of the cards in any trade negotiations around McGroarty, as he would still need to complete another two seasons in the NCAA to become an unrestricted free agent.

Given the abundance of time ahead for a solution, the team may opt to hold onto McGroarty in the hopes of repairing the relationship. It was only last summer that all signs indicated that the Jets would be parting ways with both Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck until the organization eventually signed the pair to long-term extensions late in the summer.

Jets Have Talked About Trades For Rutger McGroarty

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Elliotte Friedman (32 Thoughts) believes that the Vancouver Canucks could target Tyler Toffoli if they are unable to land pending free agent Jake Guentzel. The Canucks have been linked to Guentzel on several occasions and will likely face stiff competition to acquire the former Stanley Cup Champion. Toffoli is familiar with the Canucks organization as the 32-year-old was traded to the team in February 2020 and dressed in ten regular season games, notching ten points.

Friedman also linked Toffoli to the New York Rangers, saying that he wouldn’t be surprised to see the Rangers in the mix for Toffoli. New York recently moved Barclay Goodrow’s contract off the books and has almost $13MM in cap space heading into the offseason. Although they have some pending restricted free agents who will eat up a lot of that cap room and the pending Igor Shesterkin extension to deal with.

In other morning notes:

  • Friedman noted on the 32 Thoughts podcast that teams have inquired about former Winnipeg Jets first-round pick Rutger McGroarty (14th overall), and the Jets have engaged in trade talks about him. Friedman doesn’t get too far into the details but says that he’s heard that McGroarty is being talked about in trade discussions. The Jets hold the 20-year-old’s rights for two more years, and McGroarty decided in April to return to Michigan for another season in the NCAA. With Winnipeg in win-now mode, it would make sense for the team to look at moving him for a player that they can insert into their roster right away, particularly if they are concerned about losing his rights in two years.
  • Jeff Marek reported on the 32 Thoughts podcast that there will be buyouts in the coming days as the first buyout window will open 48 hours after the completion of the Stanley Cup final and will stay open until 5 p.m. Eastern Time on June 30th. Jeff Skinner of the Buffalo Sabres has been a name that’s been mentioned often when it comes to a buyout, as have Jack Campbell of the Edmonton Oilers and a pair of Philadelphia Flyers in Cam Atkinson and Cal Petersen. With the salary cap rising, teams have become creative when it comes to dumping salary, as evidenced by Barclay Goodrow being placed on waivers and the Washington Capitals and Los Angeles Kings swapping Pierre-Luc Dubois for Darcy Kuemper. Buyouts have long-term salary cap ramifications and teams have become more strategic about using them.

West Notes: Markstrom, Jets, Oilers

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The Calgary Flames aren’t facing much pressure to move top goaltender Jacob Markstrom, with general manager Craig Conroy sharing with Sportsnet’s Eric Francis that the player hasn’t formally requested a trade. Markstrom was wrapped up in trade rumors throughout the season, even continuing into this summer as one of the top options on the New Jersey Devils’ trade radar. Markstrom expressed frustrations with the rumors around the Trade Deadline, bluntly stating that he thought the situation could have been handled differently.

Markstrom’s value as a top goaltender is readily apparent, even through his highs and lows. He posted a stout 23 wins and .905 save percentage in 48 games this year, both improvements from his tallies last year despite playing in 11 fewer games. Last year’s .892 save percentage marked Markstrom’s first time recording a save percentage under .900 across his seven years as an NHL starter. He rebounded admirably this season, bringing his career totals up to 196 wins and a .909 save percentage across 483 games. Markstrom has two years remaining on a six-year, $36MM contract signed with the Flames in 2020 – pricing him in the middle of the goalie trade market, costlier than Linus Ullmark’s $5MM cap hit but cheaper than John Gibson’s $6.4MM cap hit.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Winnipeg Jets have extended their ECHL affiliation with the Norfolk Admirals. The Admirals are coming off their first year partnered with the Jets, seeing historic success as they made the league’s postseason for the first time in their eight-year history. The Admirals were bounced in the second round but still enjoyed a year built around strong goaltending, featuring Carolina Hurricanes prospect Yaniv Perets, on loan, and Jets prospect Thomas Milic.
  • The Edmonton Oilers will, unsurprisingly, be sticking with the same lineup that dominated in Game 4, shares Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (Twitter link). Edmonton came back from the brink of elimination with a resounding 8-1 win over the Florida Panthers. The team’s depth bolstered the performance, with Mattias Janmark, Adam Henrique, Dylan Holloway, and Ryan McLeod each contributing to the record-rivaling win. The Oilers will hope they can catch lightning twice, and avoid gifting the Panthers a Stanley Cup on home ice.

Jets Add Davis Payne, Dean Chynoweth To Coaching Staff

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The Jets have added Dean Chynoweth and Davis Payne to their coaching staff in assistant roles, Darren Dreger of TSN reports Monday. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on Sunday’s “32 Thoughts” podcast that Chynoweth was linked to the Winnipeg bench. The team made the hirings official shortly after Dreger’s report.

Chynoweth and Payne will serve under Scott Arniel, who begins his second stint as an NHL head coach in the fall. Arniel, who had been the Jets’ associate coach for the past two seasons, was promoted last month after Rick Bowness announced his retirement.

Payne, 53, finds a new NHL home after being fired by the Senators in mid-December along with head coach D.J. Smith. He’d been with Ottawa as an assistant since 2019 after stops with the Kings and Sabres, the former of which made him a Stanley Cup champion on Darryl Sutter’s staff in 2014.

Payne was also briefly the Blues’ head coach in the early 2010s, compiling a 67-55-15 record in parts of three seasons. He’s worked in the NHL every season since being named St. Louis’ head coach in 2010.

The 55-year-old Chynoweth joins after spending the last three seasons as an assistant coach for the Maple Leafs. He oversaw Toronto’s defense corps in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and coached the penalty kill in all three seasons.

During that time, the Leafs’ PK ranked 11th in the league with an 80.3% success rate. The Jets’, meanwhile, has checked in at 78.2%, 20th in the league. Toronto announced that Chynoweth wouldn’t return next season after they named former Islanders head coach Lane Lambert as an associate coach under Craig Berube earlier this month.

Before his time with the Leafs, Chynoweth spent three seasons as an assistant with the Hurricanes under Rod Brind’Amour from 2018 to 2021. The son of CHL founder and Hockey Hall of Famer Ed Chynoweth, he also spent three years as an assistant with the Islanders from 2009 to 2012. Since retiring as a player in 1998, he’s held various coaching jobs in the AHL, IHL and WHL.

Snapshots: Byfield, Necas, Ehlers, Helenius

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The Los Angeles Kings are set to face the consequences of their drafting this summer, with each of Quinton Byfield, Arthur Kaliyev, Jordan Spence, and Alex Turcotte set to enter restricted free agency. Of the quartet, only Byfield has emerged as a legitimate NHL option, stamping that sentiment with 20 goals and 55 points in 80 games this season. Byfield held onto a role on the team’s second-line and second power-play unit, and will now be paid accordingly per John Hoven of Mayor’s Manor, who projects a $6MM cap hit and eight years of term on Byfield’s next deal.

Hoven explained that Byfield’s lack of multi-season success likely holds him from too hefty of a price tag and makes the interim cost of a bridge deal hard to gauge. The Kings are also face at least one major free agent in every year between 2026 and 2030 – and likely wouldn’t be too keen on circling back to Byfield’s negotiations on top of it. Through Hoven’s projections, Byfield would earn an admirable salary – thanks to a strong season and his 2020 second-overall selection – and gains the confidence of a long-term deal without signing into his 30s. The deal also works for the team, who have $20.2MM in projected cap space to sign 10 pending free agents this summer. Byfield earning $6MM would leave plenty of room for the Kings to re-sign strong lineup pieces like Matt Roy, Viktor Arvidsson, and Cam Talbot.

Los Angeles had to wait for Byfield’s breakout but seems to have finally situated him in a role he’s comfortable with. They’ll hope he can build on his commendable scoring on a new deal next season, though with negotiations could become complicated with no recent comparable contract for Byfield’s delayed breakout.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Carolina Hurricanes will be looking for like-value players in their search for a Martin Necas trade, shares Chris Johnston on the Chris Johnston Show. Johnston went on to mention Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers as a situation where a swap could make sense. Ehlers is in a similar situation to Necas – tentatively on the trade block after a successful season and capable of holding down a confident top-six role. Necas is a pending restricted free agent this summer, due for his first major pay raise following the end of a two-year, $6MM bridge contract. Ehlers’ already makes $6MM each season, though he’s set to enter unrestricted free agency next summer. Both players are due for lofty salaries on their next deals after each showing the potential to reach 60 or more points in one season. Johnston was hesitant to speak too confidently about a swap happening, though it could certainly make sense for a Hurricanes team in the midst of their Stanley Cup window and a Jets team still a few years away.
  • Star 2024 NHL Draft prospect Konsta Helenius expressed a desire to move to the NHL as quickly as possible in an interview with Adam Kimelman of NHL.com. Helenius told Kimelman, “I played against NHL guys. Of course it gives me confidence because I think I did a great job against them – I think I’m very closet to the NHL.” Kimelman went on to explain that Helenius is not just pushing himself to be an NHL player, but to be one of the best Finns to ever appear in the league. That kind of enthusiasm should boost the excitement around him ahead of the draft, though he’s already a top 10 pick on many public scouting boards. Regardless of where he goes, though, it seems Helenius is much more focused on seizing the opportunity of his first NHL training camp.

Could Eric Comrie Be The Right Fit To Backup Connor Hellebuyck?

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  • Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun suggests that Eric Comrie could be a good fit for Winnipeg’s backup goalie vacancy. He had some success with them before departing for Buffalo two years ago while goaltending coach Wade Flaherty, who worked with him previously, is still on the staff.  Perhaps more notably, a deal for Comrie should check in at or close to the $775K minimum salary, giving them more room to work with as they look to retain or replace some of their pending free agents.  Laurent Brossoit had a strong showing as Connor Hellebuyck’s backup in 2023-24 but is expected to be too expensive for the Jets to retain this summer.

Jets Add Morgan Klimchuk To AHL Coaching Staff

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  • The Jets’ AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, added Morgan Klimchuk to their coaching staff as an assistant Wednesday. The 2013 first-round pick of the Flames was a top-flight scorer in junior hockey but only managed one NHL appearance before announcing his retirement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now 29, Klimchuk had spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach for the Western Hockey League’s Victoria Royals.

Maple Leafs Linked To Laurent Brossoit

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The Maple Leafs and netminder Laurent Brossoit will have mutual interest in a deal should he reach unrestricted free agency on July 1, The Athletic’s James Mirtle reports.

Brossoit, 31, is likely headed to market in search of a bigger role after making 22 starts last season behind Connor Hellebuyck with the Jets. He’s coming off a great season in his limited relief action, putting up a .927 SV%, 2.00 GAA and three shutouts, but without any history in a tandem role, he won’t command too much cash.

Those 22 starts were remarkably a career-high for the veteran netminder, who just completed his 10th NHL season. His career numbers (.911 SV%, 2.64 GAA) rival the other top options slated for the open market, like Anthony Stolarz and Cam Talbot, and he’s arguably been the best pure backup in the league over the past 18 months.

A member of the Cup-winning Golden Knights last season, Brossoit started the year on the injured list and was sent down to the minors upon his return to health in November. But he worked his way back to the Vegas roster later in the year, posting a .927 SV% in 10 starts and one relief appearance. That earned him the start in Game 1 of their postseason run against the Jets, and while an injury eventually forced him out of the crease and opened the door for Adin Hill, he’d re-established himself as a major-league talent.

As Mirtle posits, a short-term deal in the neighborhood of $3MM annually is a realistic bet for Brossoit. It’s similar to what Stolarz, who’s coming off a .925 SV% in 27 appearances behind Sergei Bobrovsky in Florida, should garner as well.

He would be Toronto’s replacement for Ilya Samsonov, who will hit free agency next month and isn’t expected back. He’d been serviceable but inconsistent in tandem action for them over the past two seasons, although he did backstop them to their first playoff series win of the Auston Matthews era against the Lightning in the first round in 2023.

In Toronto, Brossoit would nearly guarantee himself a new career-high in starts, assuming he avoids injuries. He’d serve in a tandem role with the younger Joseph Woll, who is slated to eventually take over as the Leafs’ long-term starter. Injuries limited him to 25 games last year, posting a respectable .907 SV%, but he’s also been excellent in brief playoff action over the last two seasons.

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