‘Tough part of the business’

Relief? Regret? Rage?

How are the Winnipeg Jets feeling following Friday’s Connor Hellebuyck trade — particularly those with deep roots and strong bonds with the franchise goaltender who now finds himself a member of the New Jersey Devils?

“It was a bit of a cloud hanging over our heads,” captain Adam Lowry admitted on Saturday. “It’s nice we can look forward now. We don’t have to keep talking about it. We’ve got guys that want to be here.”

That was a bit of a common theme around the room following an outdoor practice at Princess Auto Stadium ahead of Sunday’s Heritage Classic game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Take Kyle Connor, for example. He was one of Hellebuyck’s closest friends on the Jets, a fellow Michigan native who also won a gold medal with him at the Winter Olympics last February. He was also the most outspoken of the bunch in recent weeks, implying some bridges may have been burned.

So what does he make of the blockbuster?

“Super excited to get the guys that we got who want to be here and want to be part of Winnipeg Jets hockey,” Connor told the Free Press.

You might want to read between the lines on that one, folks. Hellebuyck, of course, no longer wanted to be here and remain with his teammates — which clearly is a bit of a fresh wound for the club.

Connor didn’t want to discuss whether he’s spoken to Hellebuyck recently or what might have been said but applauded his teammates for handling this messy situation as well as they could.

“I think we’ve done a great job building a good culture here,” said Connor, who is in the first year of an eight-year contract extension he signed with Winnipeg.

The Jets have gone 4-3-3 while the Hellebuyck situation remained in limbo and will now try to go on a run with the situation resolved.

“There’s been lots of noise, lots of distractions,” said head coach Scott Arniel, who credited Lowry and the leadership group for helping keep everyone focused. “This is a tough part of the business. At the end of the day, it’s done. It’s over with. Now we turn the page.”

Jets alternate captain Mark Scheifele, who signed a seven-year contract extension with the Jets on the same day as Hellebuyck in 2023, said he’s “sad to see him go” but preferred to focus on the good times he shared with the three-time Vezina Trophy winner and one-time Hart Trophy winner.

“A goalie that got us to some places, some memories that I’ll remember forever. You try to take the positive out of anything, and I only remember the positive from him,” said Scheifele.

“He was obviously a fantastic goaltender and a great friend of mine. I just wish him the best.”

Scheifele said one thing he won’t miss is having to talk about a player who wasn’t here.

“Just being able to move on with the team that we have is good for clarity,” he said. “At the end of the day, I think we are a better team than we were two days ago.”

Scheifele is excited by the Hellebuyck return, which includes forward Dawson Mercer, 18-year-old prospect Alexander Command, veteran (and injured) forward Nick Bjugstad and goaltender Nico Daws, who joins a crowded crease that also includes Stuart Skinner and Clay Stevenson.

“I can only play one at a time,” Arniel said with a laugh.

“This is all fresh and new. We’ll chat this one over a little bit. We’ll see. Yeah, it’s tricky. We’ve get three real good people and good goaltenders. Obviously, Skinny’s been off to a great start. We’ll just go day-to-day on this one.”

Mercer will jump right into the lineup, skating on a line Sunday with Lowry and Isak Rosen.

“Hopefully we can keep put our best foot forward and kind of leave this in the rearview,” said Lowry.

“Obviously, Helly, the legacy, the Hart Trophy, the Vezinas, what he did for our community, for our organization, you can’t forget that. Moving out a player like that, there’s big shoes to fill. But the goalies we brought in this summer have come in and done a really good job and adding the pieces now, you want to go out and you want to play a great game and show that it was a mutually beneficial trade for both teams.”

Lowry was also looking forward to a halt on Hellebuyck chatter — but then noted the Devils are coming to town to face the Jets on Nov. 10.

“So we get a week’s reprieve, I guess,” he said with a smirk.

“There’s business decisions, and he had personal reasons for it, and we are not going to hold anything against him. Obviously, we said we were disappointed with how it played out and everything like that. But he was a great teammate and he gave us a chance to win every night. I think that’s an important thing to remember, and that’s kind of how I remember it.”

The Jets had to make a few roster moves in the wake of the Hellebuyck trade. Forward Vlad Namestnikov (lower body, week-to-week) was placed on injured reserve, forward Brayden Yager was returned to the Manitoba Moose after playing one game with the Jets, and defenceman Jack St. Ivany was placed on waivers, and claimed by the Washington Capitals.

That allowed for Mercer, Daws and blue-liner Elias Salomonsson to all be added to the 23-man roster. Salomonsson is expected to make his season debut Sunday after recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and playing a pair of conditioning games with the Moose this past week.

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