NHL Insider Lays Out Connor Hellebuyck Suspension Details, Jets Face Decision on Friday

During Monday's episode of his 32 Thoughts podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman gave a lengthy update on the situation between the Winnipeg Jets and superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, revealing new details about how the standoff has unfolded.

According to Friedman, the 33-year-old was not simply sitting out of the Jets lineup. He was suspended by the team, even though he had informed the club around the season opener that he was ready to return with the suspension running through this Friday, October 23rd. 

"Because he had left them and not shown up without permission, the Jets had some added power under the CBA, where they could give him a suspension of reasonable length," Friedman explained. He said the league and the Players Association settled on a window of roughly two and a half to three weeks for what counts as reasonable.

That leaves the Jets with a new deadline and three options. They can trade Hellebuyck before Friday. They can keep him out of the lineup while paying him, since a team cannot bar a player under contract from playing and also withhold his pay. Or, most intriguingly, they can welcome him back in the Jets lineup.

Friedman does not expect Hellebuyck to play anytime soon as days after the suspension expires on Saturday, October 25th, Winnipeg hosts the Montreal Canadiens in the Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium. Friedman said the organization does not want the Hellebuyck storyline to overshadow the outdoor game. 

The following Tuesday, the Jets host the Florida Panthers, a date that will likely carry the storyline into the next week and could mark a Hellebuyck return if Winnipeg's leadership decides it is the right call.

How the Jets proceed is still up for debate as Friedman again said he believes general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff will not accept a bad trade for the three-time Vezina Trophy winner. If no deal materializes, the question becomes whether the team and its leadership would welcome Hellebuyck back or have him sit out with pay.

Friedman and former NHLers Kevin Bieksa and Luke Gazdic, his colleagues on the Sportsnet panel, disagreed on the point with Friedman saying he does not believe the players would want Hellebuyck back, while Gazdic argued that the goaltender would be welcomed back given his experience and that it would benefit the team.

The Jets are currently 4-2-2 with a 3.00 goals-against average, a mark that sits in the middle of the pack in the NHL. Combining Hellebuyck with Stuart Skinner, who has been Winnipeg's starter this season, could give the Jets their best goaltending tandem in years.

A return would not be unprecedented as elsewhere in the NHL this season, Dylan Larkin, who requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings, was not granted one and returned to the team with his captaincy removed. Friedman likened Larkin's situation to a "weird limbo," in which a player waits for a trade while playing out the season, and said Hellebuyck could do the same.

When Larkin came back, he played as well as he could and won back some favor in Hockeytown. If Hellebuyck follows that path in Winnipeg, it raises the question of whether Jets fans would soften their stance on the Olympic gold medalist.

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