The Winnipeg Jets Ink Connor Hellebuyck to Six Year Deal
The Winnipeg Jets have locked up once piece of their core. One at a time, boys, one at a time. Well, we know that Winnipeg will have a starting goaltender.
.The Winnipeg Jets inked Connor Hellebuyck to a six year, $37MM contract. That clears everything up about his RFA status. Let’s not pretend this is a surprise.
We knew the Jets were signing Hellebuyck. They weren’t about to let him walk or move him. They need him, he needed a big payday. Both parties should be satisfied. As should you, lucky fan.
Helly deserved a raise and everyone involved deserved to avoid a salary arbitration hearing. Setting a record for American-born goalies with 44 wins and finishing as the runner-up in the Vezina voting deserves some praise.
It would have been awesome to see Connor take home the Vezina, but the voting went down exactly as we thought it would. Jacob Trouba and Josh Morrissey remain the two big fish in their RFA pond, and expect them to get deals as well.
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The Jets have around $20MM in cap space, partly due to the Steve Mason salary dump and missing out on Paul Stastny. This makes it easier for Winnipeg to not have to worry about signing Morrissey, Trouba or Patrik Laine to big deals.
Either way, we get six more years of Hellebuyck at a pretty decent cap hit. I mean, Carey Price has a cap hit of $10.5MM (and a salary of $15MM!!!!) and that deal was never going to look good. This cap hit of $6.167MM for Helly puts him sixth in the NHL for goalies, and that feels about right.
Henrik Lundqvist, Sergei Bobrovsky, Pekka Rinne and Tuukka Rask are all ahead of him. It’s a great deal for Hellebuyck, and it’s still a pretty good deal for the Jets. He’ll still be in his early 30s when it runs out, when all those other guys are already there (Save for Bobrovsky, who is in his age 29 season).
Next: Season Review: Jacob Trouba
Connor Hellebuyck went 44-11-9 with a 2.36GAA and a .924 save percentage. If that wasn’t good enough, he matched that GAA and had a .922 save percentage in 17 playoff contests. Consistency is key. He’s got the contract, now he needs the Cup.