Josh Morrissey is well aware of the talk around Connor Hellebuyck’s future with the Winnipeg Jets that has loomed over the team’s off-season.
The 31-year-old blueliner is hopeful, though, that Hellebuyck will remain with the Jets this season and help the team recover from an extremely disappointing 2025-26 campaign.
“You can’t believe everything you might see or hear out there,” Morrissey told Murat Ates of The Athletic. “At the end of the day, I hope Helle is back playing for us. He’s the best goalie in the world. But what happens, doesn’t happen, whatever, that’s with him and his agent and the organization. It’s something that’s part of the game and part of the business.”
TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger reported in June that Hellebuyck wouldn’t mind a change of scenery and general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff did little to quiet the chatter as he declined to confirm whether the star netminder had requested a trade.
Now deep into the off-season, the noise around a potential deal has quieted and Hellebuyck, who took home the Hart, Vezina and William M. Jennings trophies in 2025, will be crucial to Winnipeg’s chances of bouncing back this season.
The Jets won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2025 becoming just the fifth team in NHL history to miss the playoffs in the following year.
“We’re a year removed from being the best team in the league,” Morrissey said. “Having some issues last season with injuries and whatnot, it seemed that a lot of things that could go wrong did go wrong. Now, that’s not an excuse. You need to find solutions and battle through those things, and unfortunately we couldn’t do it well enough. But I do feel personally confident in the group.”
“I feel like we have a chance to get back to where we were a year prior — back to competing with the league’s best, back to having a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup,” Morrissey added. “As a player, I think that’s all you can really ask for: to be on a team with a group of guys who are driven and can compete for a Stanley Cup. I believe in our guys.”
The Jets are coming off of a relatively quiet off-season, having added defenceman Mario Ferraro and goaltender Stuart Skinner in their most significant moves.
The addition Skinner on July 1 raised further questions on Hellebuyck’s future, but could also allow the star to see a few less starts this season to stay fresh deep into the campaign.
Hellebuyck appeared in 57 games last season, his lowest total since the 2020-21 season, but also started five games for Team USA at the Olympics en route to winning gold.
With the Jets, Hellebuyck posted the worst save percentage of his career at .895 – the first time he’s fallen below .900 - in 2025-26, to go along with a 2.86 goals-against average and a 23-23-11 record.
The 33-year-old signed a contract extension in October 2023 with an annual cap hit of $8.5 million through the 2020-31 season.
