Soft As Baby Shit: The New Jersey Devils Put Out A Statement Announcing Connor Hellebuyck Won't Start In His Return To Winnipeg
Rich Graessle. Getty Images.One of the biggest stories of the NHL offseason which bled into the start of the regular season was Connor Hellebuyck joining the trend of American players forcing a trade out of Canadian markets. Quinn Hughes did it in Vancouver. Brady Tkachuk did it in Ottawa. And Connor Hellebuyck was so set on never playing for the Winnipeg Jets again that he willfully forfeited almost $1 million in fines while sitting out until he was traded.
He quit on the Winnipeg Jets. He told that team exactly how he felt about them, and straight up quit even though he still had 4 years left on his contract at $8.5M AAV. 3 years into a 7-year contract and he said, "fuck you guys, I'm out".
And you know what? That's totally fine. I'm all for it, actually. If Connor Hellebuyck wants to win a Stanley Cup more than anything before his career is up, he had to get out of Winnipeg because it sure as shit wasn't happening there. I'm all for a guy wanting to take control of his career. But….if you're going to disrespect the shit out of the Jets organization like that, the least you can do is face the music when the time comes to make your return to Winnipeg as a visiting opponent.
But turns out Connor Hellebuyck and the New Jersey Devils are softer than baby shit. Because Hellebuyck will not be between the pipes tomorrow night when the Devils play in Winnipeg.
At this point, it doesn't really matter whose decision it was to sit Hellebuyck tomorrow night. Because literally every single person handled this as poorly as possible. Hellebuyck is a coward if he doesn't want to face that crowd tomorrow night. Sunny Mehta is a fucking idiot if he truly believes that playing the goalie making $8.5 million per year would "potentially give [the Devils] a reduction in expected win probability". I mean what a goddamn nerd. What an absolute dork. You have a guy who just took a giant shit on an entire city, and you're going to use "expected win probability" as a cop out for why he's not playing? I hate nerds so much. And then the communications and social people in New Jersey are also idiots for thinking that putting out a statement like this would be helpful in the slightest. Just lie and say he got food poisoning or something. Literally anything besides putting out a statement almost 48 hours in advance saying your goalie is too afraid of the backlash he's going to receive in net.
We saw the reception that Brady Tkachuk received when he made his return to Ottawa. We saw the reception that Quinn Hughes received when he made his return to Ottawa. Eventually we'll see Dylan Larkin get ruthlessly shit on by the fans in Detroit if he ever gets traded. If you demand a trade, that's fine. But you can't run away like a coward when you have to make your return to that city. Hell, even Cutter Gauthier faced the music from Philly fans and I thought he was the biggest diva in hockey. But turns out Connor Hellebuyck has now taken that title. Really, really tough look from a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.