Original AC/DC drummer Colin Burgess has died at 77. The Australian helped form the group in 1973

Connor Hellebuyck breaks silence after trade from Jets

It took until the very end of his introductory news conference Saturday — right around the 15-minute mark — before Connor Hellebuyck was finally asked the question that hockey fans back in Winnipeg were likely waiting for.

“Is there anything you’d like to say to Jets fans?” a reporter who covers Hellebuyck’s new team, the New Jersey Devils, put to him during the session held inside the Prudential Center in Newark.

A short pause followed.

“I mean, there’s a lot. There’s a lot that I need to say,” Hellebuyck began, no doubt raising plenty of eyebrows around here and the hockey world in general.

A life's story: From wartorn Poland to Winnipeg’s streets, Kazimierz Patalas worked to help others

Kazimierz Patalas left Poland in the late 1960s to make a new life for him and his family elsewhere, but he never forgot the lessons he learned as a young man in the country of his birth.

Perhaps no one lesson stuck with him more than the importance of giving back to the community. It was something he first endeavoured to do as a teen in his native Poland and continued to do for many decades after arriving in his adopted home of Winnipeg in 1967.

“He was always trying to do good for the community. I guess that was sort of ingrained in him from Poland,” says son Jacek, one of three children born to Patalas and his wife Józefa.

“Everything you did you kind of did for the community, for making sacrifices. Your life was geared towards or focused on helping society or the community where you live.”

Province orders ban on private teacher-student messaging

Manitoba teachers are no longer allowed to text or use social media to contact a student – regardless of whether they coach a school sports team or supervise other activities outside typical instruction times.

Sun sets on Hellebuyck era

Now that the Connor Hellebuyck era of the Jets has finally concluded, what impact will the departure have on the netminder’s legacy?

Well, it’s a complex answer and one that could change with the benefit of time and a side order of sober second thought.

Given how raw things are right now and how things quickly went sideways — with the franchise goalie essentially forcing his way out of town with his trade request back in April — many members of the Winnipeg Jets fan base quickly found themselves at the “good riddance” stage of the grieving process.

This wasn’t how this story was supposed to end and there’s no doubt some feelings have been hurt along the way.

Chief medical officer quits, cites work environment ‘challenges’

Manitoba’s provincial chief medical officer is resigning from his position at Shared Health, citing the role’s demands and work environment challenges in an email viewed by the Free Press.

Dr. José François, who’s held the executive position since April 2024, sent an email to provincial medical specialty leads that said his final day will be Jan. 17, 2027, after he submitted his resignation Wednesday. Several other senior leaders have departed the provincial health authority in recent months.

“Serving in this role has been a privilege,” François, a longtime family physician from Ste. Anne, wrote in the email.

He said his “greatest pleasure” was working alongside and supporting an “exceptional group” of provincial medical specialty leads and chief medical officers.