Connor Hellebuyck's name is stuck in trade limbo, and the Winnipeg Jets might be staring down their first real veteran holdout.
This week, someone edited Hellebuyck's Wikipedia page to list him as a Buffalo Sabre, a prank that still says plenty about where his situation actually stands.
It's not real. Nothing about this trade is close to done. But the fact people believed it for a second shows just how loud this rumor has gotten.
Adam Lowry has said he genuinely hopes Hellebuyck reports and stays a Jet, but there's real doubt that actually happens once camp opens.
This could be the first time a true veteran star, not a prospect, considers holding out on Winnipeg, and that alone makes this a situation worth watching closely.
The Jets don't have unlimited time here either. Hellebuyck's trade list expands to ten teams next summer, tightening Winnipeg's leverage the longer this drags on.
Why Buffalo actually makes sense as the landing spot
Hellebuyck posted an .895 save percentage over 57 games last season, still elite relative to a league average that's dipped below .900 across the board.
Buffalo just finished 50-23-9 with 109 points, good for fourth overall, a legitimate contender that still hasn't made a major splash this offseason.
General manager Jarmo Kekalainen has the wealthy ownership backing to go big, and average goaltending has been a real problem during Buffalo's recent playoff runs.
A public standoff over a franchise goaltender is the last thing Winnipeg needs after the kind of season it just had. Nobody wins from that kind of drama.
At 33, age and a knee procedure last season give teams leverage to lowball too, the classic recency bias play in every negotiation like this.
Whether Hellebuyck reports to camp on time, or Winnipeg is actually staring down its first veteran holdout, is a story that gets very real over the next few weeks.
Should the Jets trade Connor Hellebuyck to Buffalo before this turns into a holdout?
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