Gabriel Vilardi was asked at Jets camp whether the Hellebuyck situation would be a distraction, and he aimed his answer straight at the people asking it.
Not for the group, he said. It'll be distracting with you guys bringing it up. That's the only distracting part about it.
That's a player protecting his dressing room, and it's fine as far as it goes. It also aged in roughly 48 hours.
He added that everybody in there should be motivated by last year anyway.
By the weekend the goaltender wasn't reporting, and Winnipeg had nothing left to do but suspend him.
That stopped being a media question the moment the paperwork went through.
Connor Hellebuyck trade drama gets worse after Gabriel Vilardi's pointed comments
Cheveldayoff held out all summer for a better return. Elliotte Friedman reported he turned down two first round picks from Florida.
The package was Evan Rodrigues, those Ottawa-bound picks from the Brady Tkachuk trade, and one roster player. Friedman said it wasn't enough for the Jets.
Now there's a suspended starter and a camp where every player gets handed the same question.
Kyle Connor already said a return would be a pretty tough situation to walk into. Two stars, two completely different tones.
Vilardi also said this week that he made a commitment here and he's riding it out, for good or for bad.
Winnipeg didn't dress him in Edmonton on Saturday. Neither Connor nor Mark Scheifele made that trip either.
The kids took a 5-2 loss instead. Parker Ford and Jacob Julien scored the Winnipeg goals.
Thomas Milic faced 27 shots in that net and stopped 23 of them.
Haydn Fleury led the group with 23:42 on the back end. Jack St. Ivany went 22:45 beside him.
Friedman also reported Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has the Jets on his no-trade list, which closes the cleanest Buffalo route.
Colorado visits Monday. Scott Arniel takes the questions either way.
So who is really creating the distraction here? Telling reporters to stop asking works like asking people not to look at the fire truck parked outside. The truck is still there.
He gets asked again Monday, and the honest answer keeps getting harder to give. None of it ends until somebody signs something.
Is the media to blame for making Connor Hellebuyck a distraction in Winnipeg?
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