Olympic gold medalist and star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck has been traded.
During the summer, he quietly requested a trade. When no resolution was found, Hellebuyck took his request public. He then decided to skip camp and was promptly suspended by the Jets. Suspending a player can only last so long, and his suspension was scheduled to end today. It certainly seemed like nobody connected to the Jets franchise, including the fans, wanted this guy back, so today was a big deadline.
Ultimately, a resolution was found as the goaltender was moved to New Jersey for quite the package. The Devils traded Dawson Mercer, Alexander Command (12th overall in the 2026 draft), Nico Daws, Nick Bjugstad, a 2029 second-round pick, and a 2027 seventh-round pick.
That package might seem light because there was no star going back to Winnipeg, but given the amount of leverage they had, I choose to believe they did quite well. Mercer and Bjugstad give them depth. Command gives them a legitimate prospect.
On the New Jersey side of things, they got the final piece to their puzzle. New Jersey spent most of the offseason assembling one of the most stacked forward groups in the league. They were already decently loaded on defense. The one thing they were missing, and have been missing, was a true goaltender to help backstop them. Well, if you’re going to acquire a goaltender, Hellebuyck should be at the top of anyone’s list.
Hellebuyck was bad during the regular season last year, but the year before he won the MVP of the league. He was also the player most responsible for delivering a gold medal to the United States, as Team Canada was dominating that game but could only get one goal past Hellebuyck.
This is the definition of a blockbuster, and it might have immediately changed the entire outlook of the Eastern Conference.
The next shoe to drop could be Dylan Larkin, who, according to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, expanded his list of potential trade destinations to include new teams, including… New Jersey.
What do you think about this trade?
