Jets benefit from Hellebuyck learning to have more fun

On Jan. 7, 2025, Connor Hellebuyck recorded his 300th NHL win, becoming only the 41st goalie in league history to reach that milestone. For the past decade the two-time Vezina Trophy winner has been giving opposing shooters fits – an all-too-familiar feeling for Hellebuyck’s Winnipeg Jets teammates. TSN Winnipeg Bureau Reporter John Lu has more.

At a Winnipeg Jets’ morning skate earlier this month, David Gustafsson beat Connor Hellebuyck short side on a two-on-zero drill. Morgan Barron, standing at the edge of Hellebuyck’s crease, slapped the rebound off Gustafsson’s goal into the empty net. Once, twice, three times Barron mischievously swatted the puck in as it bounced perfectly off the mesh right onto his stick blade.

Finally, Hellebuyck had enough.

“He got a little upset and shot the puck at me,” Barron said with a laugh. “I take them as I can get them on him.”

Such is life for Winnipeg Jets skaters for the past 10 years. While Hellebuyck has grown into arguably the best goalie on the planet, scoring on him in practice has become an increasingly tall order. In practice, shooters have time, space and no defenders converging on them; but Hellebuyck knows all his teammates’ patterns and tendencies.

“At this point, it’s more of can they fool me, rather than can they score on me,” said Hellebuyck.

So, when shooters do get the better of him, they often let him know it.

At a practice midway through last season, Nino Niederreiter sniped bar down past Hellebuyck from the top of the left faceoff circle. The Swiss power forward leaned toward the all-star goalie and bellowed a villainous, ruthless, “Hahahahaha!!”

“Absolutely he doesn’t like when he gets scored on. When he gets scored on, he always looks back. ‘Did that really go in? What did I do wrong?’” said Niederreiter.

This type of exchange, however, is a two-way street.

“I would say I’m definitely leading in giving it to them, but every now and then they’ll have their day. I gotta’ let ‘em have it,” said Hellebuyck. “It’s a good give and take. I just think it makes practice more fun when you have a little competitive edge and chirp each other a little bit.”

According to Niederreiter, one of Hellebuyck’s favourite digs is a confident statement of his abilities.

“There’s that funny thing he always says: ‘You hit the post. I made you hit the post,’” Niederreiter said.

Winger Nikolaj Ehlers recounts another of Hellebuyck’s greatest hits.

“If I score, ‘It was a lucky shot’. If I shoot it into his glove, he didn’t make the save; I just shot it in there,” Ehlers said. “So, there’s a lot of back and forth like that.”

Hellebuyck says he started leaning into the playful back and forth in practice with his teammates during the shortened 2019-20 season when he won his first Vezina Trophy.

“I realized I was so hard on myself the year before [in 2018-19], that I had so much expectations,” he said. “Then I realized: just have fun. Just go out there and stop the puck.

“When I was younger I was more just, I had to stop everything, I had to be perfect. Whereas now, perfect has a different meaning. It’s more detail-oriented, more feel-oriented and how much fun you’re having. Especially the older you get, you gotta continue to have fun.”

Fun for Hellebuyck regularly involves brandishing the windmill trapper save, which Barron describes as “Very exaggerated. Swings it and then swings it back down and swings it again.”

Safe to say that every Jets skater, regardless of tenure, has endured Hellebuyck flashing the leather at him.

“He loves doing that one and rubbing it in your face,” said forward Dominic Toninato, who has suited up for just over 100 games as a Jet, but wears a unique badge of honour among his teammates, carried forward from his Colorado Avalanche days in 2019.

 “My first-ever NHL goal was versus Helle. I can hang that over him. It was definitely a greasy one – rebound out front that I banged home. Not a whole lot on him, but I like to have that one over him.”

Indeed, greasy goals are one of the few reliable ways to score on Hellebuyck. According to IcyData Hockey, 46 per cent of Hellebuyck’s career goals allowed have come from the high-danger zone between the circles and below the hashmarks; and 29 per cent from the goalmouth area.

That’s why rockets, snipes and beauties from mid to long range that beat Hellebuyck in practice are celebrated. Perhaps none more than by Ehlers, who broke into the league with Hellebuyck in the 2015-16 season. Ehlers loves scoring on Hellebuyck. And celebrating. Sometimes flamboyantly.

“I think it’s more of a funny celly than a good celly,” said Ehlers, who explained that the extra mustard in his goal celebration was directed at teammates who had wagered against him to score during a training camp competition in October 2023.”

“I thought he was going to hit me right in the face,” said Hellebuyck, chuckling at the memory of Ehlers’ high, stick-side clapper.

Fun and hijinks aside, facing Hellebuyck daily has helped his teammates become better shooters, and not just because of his competitiveness, talent and attention to detail.

“Shooting on him, he basically gives you something that he thinks that can help you. In my case, releasing the puck quicker, keeping the puck in front of my feet. If you’re pulling it back it’s easier to read the release. Obviously, that’s super helpful coming from a goalie like that,” said Barron about an observation made to him by Hellebuyck.

But the two-time Vezina Trophy-winner doesn’t offer unsolicited advice.

“If it comes freely in conversation, then it comes. If a guy says, ‘How can I hit my spot? I’m not beating you, what can I do?’ It comes out naturally and they come to me and say, ‘Why am I not hitting that shot anymore?’, and that’s when things open up. Conversations start to grow,” said Hellebuyck.

“Any of those tidbits he gives us is kind of like the cherry on top of shooting at such a great goalie every day,” said Barron.

A grateful teammate, even if repayment is made with mischievous empty net goals in practice.