Jets Not Looking For Future Assets For Connor Hellebuyck

The Winnipeg Jets remain one of the more fascinating teams this offseason. All eyes continue to be on the Jets and what they do next, especially with trade rumors swirling around players like Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck.

But in order for these players to be moved the Jets need to have an organization philosophy change that needs to start with general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff. However, Cheveldayoff has a history of holding onto players too long which causes problems inside the locker room. And nobody really knows where the problems started or how deep they go.

However, the Jets want to remain in playoff contention as we saw in the return for Pierre-Luc Dubois. But the Jets are one of those teams that remain in the murky middle of the NHL. Similar to the Ottawa Senators trade of Alex DeBrincat, both teams want players in return to help their team remain competitive. But that is something contending teams are not willing to do.

As Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada, reporter Sean Reynolds told the Full Press NHL Podcast last week.

I think Connor Hellebuyck would be a great fit with the New Jersey Devils but the New Jersey Devils want to go in for the cup this year so what they wanna do is they want to take their prospect pool, their big fat, one of the best in the NHL prospect pools, and say ‘we will give you this and you give us this guy so we can be good right now and you can be good in the future’ and the Winnipeg Jets do not want that. What they want is the New Jersey Devils’ assets that make them really good right now… New Jersey is not gonna do it if they subtract three really good forwards and another defenseman from the process. That is why we have not seen Mark Scheifele or Connor Hellebuyck moved yet.”

Reynolds is right; why would a team like the New Jersey Devils give up players on their active roster now to acquire Connor Hellebuyck? Or any team, for that matter. The Devils will want to use their deep prospect pool as Reynolds pointed out to supply the Jets with assets for the future.

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But again this comes back to the philosophy of Winnipeg right now as they are in retooling mode and not rebuilding mode as Reynolds said.