The Winnipeg Jets may be heading toward a Connor Hellebuyck breakup
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Daniel Lucente
Apr 18, 2026 (9:17)
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Photo credit: © James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Connor Hellebuyck called the Winnipeg Jets chaotic, and the 2025-26 season proved his warning never really left the room.
Those quotes were never just exit-day steam.
They read now like an internal scouting report on a team that did not fix its core problems.
Winnipeg crashed from 56-22-4 in 2024-25 to 35-35-12 in 2025-26. Hellebuyck fell to 23-23-11 with a 2.86 goals-against average and .895 save percentage in 57 starts.
That is not one bad month between the pipes.
It is a roster and structure problem, the exact thing Hellebuyck called out when he ripped the team for being loose, slow, screened too often, and too easy to score on.
You can trace that message through every clip here.
Connor Hellebuyck still defines the Winnipeg Jets
Fans were right to hear alarm bells, not drama.
The lazy read was that Hellebuyck wants out because Winnipeg is Winnipeg.
The harder read, and the smarter one now, is that he was demanding a real contender around him.
His Olympic gold run in 2026 backed his point hard. His game still plays when the team in front of him is fast, connected, and clean.
That shifts pressure straight onto the front office and the blue line.
Mark Scheifele still put up 36-67-103 and Kyle Connor posted 39-53-92, so this was not a scoring drought story. It was a support story.
If the Jets treat those old clips like frustration, they miss the lesson again.
Hellebuyck was not guessing. He was telling Winnipeg exactly what breaks a contender.
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