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Connor Hellebuyck Traded from Jets to Devils

October 23, 20260 comments♥ 0
00:00 Hockey season is back, which means your schedule just got a whole lot busier. Ours definitely did. Yes, it did. I mean, Jesse's at the games all the time. Steve's up late doing LFRs. I'm doing streams and Steve's doing streams. It's just crazy. It's fun though.
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01:07 Only with the code dangle, factormeals.ca. Factor. Canada's number one ready-to-eat meal delivery service. Check them out today. Connor Hellebuck is the devil. That's what Winnipeg Jets fans have thought for many months now,
01:20 but now he is very literally a devil. On PTI this summer, they told him to go to hell, and he took them literally. He did all. The New Jersey Devils have to use that. Have to use that
01:34 in every piece of promo material before his first game. Connor Hellebuck is a Winnipeg Jet. Sorry, not any longer. That's what you would have said to 2012. The Jets are getting Dawson Mercer. Nico Dawes, Nick Bustad,
01:51 unsigned draft choice, 12th overall pick from Sweden this year, Alexander Command, and New Jersey's second round pick in 2029, as well as New Jersey's seventh round pick in 2027. Yeah, you know that seventh is what really got it across the line. Now, some people love this trade. Some people are calling it trading dollars for dimes.
02:12 What side do you fall on, Steve and Jesse? I'm kind of on the side of dollars for dimes, but it largely depends on command. 12th overall pick That is a You win the trade If he's a stud You lose the trade if he's a bust I think it really is as simple as that
02:34 Mercer could be very useful for the Jets Bukstad could be useful for the Jets Maybe you get lucky on that second round pick A few years down the line But if command stinks you lose the trade Right In their lineup now Jesse First off where do you do you fall
02:50 Do you think it's even trade or do you think it's dollars for dimes? I think both teams ended up really well at the end of this trade. I think 10 dimes does equal a dollar if my math is correct. That is a good way of putting it. As long as you're getting 10 dimes back, it's a good trade. They get a lot of assets. And I think that's what the Winnipeg Jets have done here.
03:09 You need to look at that Alexander Command name in the trade and just swap in your mind 12th overall traffic from 2026. Yeah. Like if that is a first, a second, and a seventh, I think people look at it a little differently, but because there's a name associated to it, they might have, they may be a little scared off of it initially. That's how I saw it initially. And I was like, but that's just a first round pick. If you get a first round pick from the Devils instead, they miss the playoffs and it ends up landing at 12th. That's pretty good. Right. So I think the Jets did well here in a situation where they had to get rid of this player and their goal tending has also been decent this year. And then the Devils haven't moved off of anything that that's important in their lineup. I think they'll be fine without Dawson Mercer and Nick Bukstad. And then the rest is just futures. And now they have a solid goaltending tandem, assuming that Hellebuck is still somewhere near that Vesna trophy player of Hellebuck and Markstrom.
04:04 Like, I like it. Is he? Sorry, I said Markstrom, Allen. Is he? That's the question. We don't know. Mystery. And it's funny, the, you know, goalie's missing training camp in particular, usually it's rough.
04:16 And I don't care how much training you did in Michigan where you live. It's not the same as being in a game. And by the way, you think about the NHL since week one of the season. Remember the Oilers and Vancouver Canucks were just blowing goals out there, whatever. Look at what's happened to Vancouver since. Everybody's like, wow, that first week it was great. The Paul Carter Show. And now Brock Bessor's on camera last night going, this is hell.
04:37 I don't know what's wrong with this. And, you know, the Oilers have basically not lost a game since, right? The play moves quickly. And so for Connor Hellebuck to come in and be successful, I mean, New Jersey's probably not in any rush to get him in the lineup. do you do you expect him in a couple of weeks uh do you expect him right away what do you guys think uh i expect him fairly soon but i also think him and alan are going to platoon uh for a little while uh you got to remember he's coming off an 895 yeah now granted it wasn't with a very good winnipeg jets team right um but he's coming off an 895 uh basically a 500 record and people are
05:17 going to point to the Olympic thing. And I can't hammer this point hard enough. The winning the Stanley Cup is completely different from winning an Olympic gold medal. That is a two or three week tournament where you play, how many games did he play? Total six. Yeah. It's not the same. That's maybe a first round series. It's 84 games. That's so many games. And then you got to play 20 plus in the playoffs. And, And a first round series, like you said, Adam, that's actually what Connor Hellabuck has struggled with immensely. Well, and so have the Devils.
05:52 So I think they might be a perfect match. They could be a perfect match. When they do get in, they have not been very good. And like... Except against the Rangers a couple of years ago. Yes. Okay. That one time.
06:02 It was a little sad. Yeah. Sorry, Jesse. That was my only cup pick. Yeah. That's a tough one. I've had that happened me a few times in recent memory. And like the one that he did win recently with the Jets.
06:15 That was one of the most unlikely. likely a playoff series wins in recent memory. You tied the game and therefore the series with like a second to go and ended up winning it in overtime. He's got some stuff to prove. You know he's got three Veznas. You've got to prove that this layoff hasn't messed you up. You got to prove that last year was a blip, although 895 would make him a league average goaltender. But this isn't a package you give up for a league average goaltender.
06:43 No. And it's a good bet by Sunny Mata to be like, okay, We're not giving up anything that important off of our roster. And we now have a guy we know we're going to trust as our number one goal. Regardless of how he plays, we're going to go into every matchup being like we know who our guy is, at least. You know, and that's a certain confidence that New Jersey hasn't had in a while. It's a good bet for this team that has very high expectations on themselves. I'm a little confused as where Dawes slots into all this with the Winnipeg Jets.
07:14 Play Stevenson and Stuart Skinner being the goalies. Right. I mean, the obvious thing is I guess he just replaces Clay Stevenson, but all Chris Johnson keeps saying, and I tend to trust what he says, is they really like Clay Stevenson. Yeah. And Clay Stevenson's an older goalie, right? He's not some like young kid.
07:30 He's like 26, 27 years old. Yeah. So like I'm not saying you move heaven and earth to keep this player, but what, you know, what if you end up flipping does? Because it sounds like he's got some value. Yeah. I could see that, especially because he's 25 making $1.1 million and in year one of two of his deal. And I think there is promise there with Nico Dawes, even if nobody else believes in
07:51 Dawes, I will believe in him. I mean, maybe like Clay Stevenson, if Nico Dawes isn't around. But now he is. So maybe it changes things. Nick, Nick Buxtad is on IR right now. So he's not going to join the lineup immediately. Dawson Mercer, they have him on Puckpedia slotting in as like a right winger on the third line.
08:07 That's where he was playing in New Jersey. Yeah. So I assume puckpedia just went with that. And weirdly, he's listed as a center, but the guy's never been above 40% in a faceoff dot his entire career. So, okay, he had 40%. 42 points last year. That's pretty good. Right? That's a pretty good middle six guy.
08:20 Half a point of game. Bukstad has always been a middle six to lower middle six guy. What are they getting up front immediately? Like I know it all hinges on command, but there's, we don't know what command is. So what let's talk about what we have immediately and what does it bring to the Jets lineup. Ideally depth and it, you know, a rising tide floats all boats sort of thing. So you're not getting an all star inserted into the lineup, but you have a guy who can play on any of your, top three lines competently.
08:50 You know, maybe this player never turns into the player you thought he would be. And he was in that weird 2020 draft, right? Yeah. But like in his second year in the league, he has 27 goals, right, and 56 points. And there's high expectations on Mercer that he would emerge as a perennial 30 goal score. And since that second year, he's never matched that total ever as a New Jersey devil. He's going to be playing
09:12 with some really dynamic offensive players around a Jets team. with some really dynamic offensive players. So he's either going to be playing on a line with them, or maybe some sort of second unit with them, or he's going to be part of the depth that ideally lets those guys flourish. I don't think it's weird, too, that, you know, Sheldon Keefe got in there, Dawson Mercer wasn't as good anymore. Sometimes coach and player, even if the, even if the system should match, they don't work.
09:38 And it doesn't mean if one, it doesn't mean one of the other is bad. No, and that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying it's, yeah, 100%. I just think like, oh, this is the first round pick. from like you said that Wonky 2020 draft, but I think everybody's kind of reside to the fact that his ceiling is a middle six player and more likely the bottom half of the middle six
09:55 and that's kind of what he is at this point. He's played over 400 NHL game. Yeah, yeah. You make this trade under the assumption that he is what he is and if he turns into something better, great. And maybe he can turn into a good second line winger for us. And his contract is up at the end of the year.
10:09 He will be an RFA, but he's one, he's been playing since he was 18, so he's a year away from unrestricted free agency. at the end of this season, which is kind of bonkers. Dawson Mercer, UFA. Oh my God, where does the time go? On a, just in a, I'm going to be corporate here. Thousand-foot view.
10:27 Okay. Goalies don't go for much in the NHL, but this is Connor Hellebock, three-time Vezna, one-time heart. You know, they've been deep in the playoffs with this guy, maybe not as often as they would have wanted to. Best goal tender in franchise history. Clearly you were never going to get fair value for what Connor Hellebuck brought to this franchise.
10:44 We knew that from the beginning, Even when the Buffalo trade was in the works in June, Buffalo still wanted to pick swap with them fourth and eighth. And they ended up with Vigo Bjork. They're thrilled with that pick. Yeah. I wonder for you guys, if you're a Jets fan today, how are you processing this? Well, anecdotally, the Jets fans in my phone are doing the woulda shoulda-cuda. And you talk about the Buffalo trade.
11:11 It's funny. Like some of the packages, I don't know if any of them are confirmed. everyone's talking about the Buffalo trade the rumored Florida one hurts as well. Because that would have been the seventh pick right? It would have been the ninth overall, the 25th overall, Evan Rodriguez and A2 Lusterina,
11:28 which is a much, much, much better. Should have taken that trade? Is that real? Is that real? Is that real? That sounds like to me, like way overpay. Here's Kevin Shevoldeoff and all his surrogates job over the next few days. is to be like none of those are real, even if they are. You got to get out there.
11:50 Like that, I would, you should kill that guy with a crossbow. Whoever reported that. I think they, I think Kevin Cheval de off, considering everything, not taking Connor Hellebuck in a vacuum, you know, considering the thousand foot view of what he is and what has gone on with this situation. And considering we don't know what he is this season because he hasn't played hockey, this is a decent return. Like, I think it's an A, B, plus on the grade.
12:18 You can be fairly confident that Command is a player the Jets would have scouted very heavily because he was a guy drafted right around when they had a pick. They did like Bjork Moore. But now they get to be part of the same organization at the same time. They probably wish he was over here, honestly. Yeah. But, like, I still think if you take that name away and you just call it a first round draft pick, the fact that goalies aren't traded for a whole bunch and you're able to get a first, a second, a seventh, a middle six player, and then Bjork Strand, who's going to be something for you as well, a middle six as well, I think that's decent.
12:57 Prospects in Europe, by the way, in these scenarios are always underrated. Because the first thing that you do as a fan, you're like, all right, we got this guy, he's 12th overall pick. That's great. Let me go look at his stats. Yeah. Right? Like, I know his junior Swedish numbers are really. really good, but does the average fan care? Yeah, it's, I know you care. I don't think you're the average fan. You're watching a hockey video on YouTube. I think you're up there. Yeah, right?
13:22 It's so much different if he was on the Erie Otters. And you're like, oh my God, he put up 60 points in 20 games for the Erie Otters. That's easy. That's it like, like you understand that. But like a guy in Europe, you're like, oh, I don't know what that is. The World Juniors just became appointment viewing for Winnipeg Jets fan. Yeah. And like, who knows it?
13:41 Like, I doubt. York's there on account of he's so important to your team. It's not impossible both guys are there. Let me ask. No, no. York's playing second line center for them. Yeah, but what if they stink? Like, what if the team's in the world juniors?
13:53 I don't know. That'd be a crazy move. What if they stink? That'd be interesting. Let me ask you about, let me ask you about the obvious. And the obvious is that now the New Jersey Devils, despite what they look like six months ago when Fitzgerald was at the end of his tenure and how a disaster it looked and, hey, Quinn Hughes is in Minnesota and maybe
14:12 It's going to be Minnesota that gets the Hughes brothers. Quinn Hughes hasn't signed yet. And, you know, the devils are all of a sudden looking real sexy, assuming Connor Hallibuck is Connor Hallibuck, okay? Yes. Okay. Is there a trade here? And because remember, New Jersey's got two first this year, their own and somebody else's,
14:31 and they got next years and the year after. They've got one of the top goaltending prospects in the game in Michaela Gorov. They could, you know, they could send over, they've already traded command who was their third ranked park prospect. So it could be Anton Zeliev. It could be a few other players. They've got young guys to deliver. They, I don't know unless like, I don't know what, what now works for the Minnesota
14:55 wild unless it's like Evan Rodriguez for centers. But is the redeal to be done here? Do you think Bill Guerin finally goes, you know what? I'll take those assets and maybe parlay that into something else. What is the more big balls bill thing to do? Because taking the assets and parlaying them into something else, like that's stressful, that's difficult. That's brave. Do you call the Columbus Blue Jackets and go, what's Zach Werencki going to cost me?
15:21 Oh, wow. Wow. Right? Adam's cooking with gas. Right? You trade Quinn Hughes to the New Jersey devil so that you could go out and get Zach Worenzky. Hell yeah. Hell yeah.
15:33 Why not? The somehow more brass balls bill thing to do is just stare down the barrel of the barrel of the problem and face it head on and potentially let Quinn Hughes walk. Do you go down with the ship if you're Bill, if you're Bill Garron, Jesse Blake? And in terms of if Quinn walks, he walks, we got him for two years. I know Dougie Hamilton has a full, no trade clause, no move clause, but I would take some sort of package with Hamilton and a couple first round picks for Quinn Hughes. Like, I'd rather have that than just let him walk. Okay. If I'm Bill Garum. Okay. The need for Hamilton I wonder about that because Hayden, correct me if I'm wrong,
16:16 is there still no timeline for Brock Faber? There is no timeline for Brock Faber. That situation is percolating under the surface. I think I would rather do a move like that than just wait this thing out with Quinn. I know Quinn is, he's either one, two or three, depending on your rankings in the world and defensemen. But I think you're, I think at this point,
16:38 we kind of all reside to the fact that he's walking to somewhere at the end of this year. Is Hayden feeling that way? Is it right? But so I would rather go get a stud like Hamilton, who at least I can try and win with going forward after this season. Okay. Plus the first round picks in New Jersey look good.
16:54 They do. Like two of them. After all this, Helibuck gets what he wants, right? Like he's taking a lot of grief. And after having no control of the situation, he's in full control. If he is bad, the New Jersey Devils lose.
17:10 this trade. And so does he. Yep. If he is good, the New Jersey Devils win this trade, and so does he. To me, it's as simple as that. I'm excited for the reaction from Devils fans, the first game that Helibuck does not have a good game.
17:26 I am excited for the reaction from Jets fans when he returns to Winnipeg. Oh, man, we're going to get... Wait, when is that? When is that? He looked at it right now. Jets, Devils, this season. There we go. Boom. All right, they are playing. It looks like Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.
17:43 I'm just looking it up. Jake Allen plays that game we riot. Yeah, that's true. Jake Allen plays that game we riot. Ottawa set the bar very high. Yes, they. What do you got Canada Life Center? That's such, still called that.
17:56 I don't know. That's such an important thing to say. It's so rare that we get two of these games in one season. We get three. What's the other one? You didn't know that Sunday is the Quit a Soda game? Ah, that's true. When he was going to Minnesota, he returns.
18:10 to Vancouver for the first time since that trade on Sunday. It happens really. It happens relatively quickly here gentlemen. Devils and Jets at Canada Life November 10th. He doesn't play. No, he's probably not going to buy. He has to. I think right now, if you're listening to this and you're a Utica Comet season ticket
18:29 holder, your tickets might be worth a little bit. Yeah. In the next couple weeks, your tickets might be go up in price because you can see Connor Hellebuck play. I think he's still going to be on his conditioning stint for. that game. It's October 23rd right now. I think they do it on purpose. Connor, you get your ass
18:46 to that building and play that game. I think they're scared. I think a top tier athlete should beg to play in that game. I think they hold them out. I guess we'll find out. Now, we want to hear your trade grades in the comments. Tell us what you think. What do you give this out of 10? For both
19:02 teams. Or you can do A, B, C, D, E, too, if you do that. Why do they skip E? They just go right to F. A, B, C, D, F. They didn't, for me. Check it out. Thanks so much for watching. And the new Steve Dangel podcast is also out soon. That's two minutes for holding. But you're holding two times the chicken with Bogo box meals from KFC. Order in and focus on the ice, not what's for dinner.
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