The Connor Hellebuyck trade market has a pricing problem this week, and the Winnipeg Jets are the ones creating it.
Pierre LeBrun said on Melnick in the Afternoon that the teams interested in the goaltender feel Winnipeg is asking for too much given the position the Jets are in.
That last clause carries all the weight.
Buyers clearly believe the leverage sits on their side of the table. Kevin Cheveldayoff is pricing like it never left Manitoba.
The contract shouldn't scare anybody off. His $8,500,000 cap hit ranks fourth among NHL goaltenders, matching Thatcher Demko's number.
Igor Shesterkin tops the position at $11,567,857, and Andrei Vasilevskiy sits at $9,500,000. A team landing Winnipeg's goalie gets him for well under the top of that market.
Kevin Cheveldayoff's asking price meets a skeptical market
The on-ice picture isn't helping the sales pitch. Winnipeg dropped a 5-2 decision in Colorado last Friday and closed exhibition play 1-2-1 over its last four.
Friday's regular-season opener against the Bruins now comes with an awkward subplot. Scott Arniel has to run his crease while other front offices openly haggle over the man in it.
Then the schedule piles on. The Jets visit Detroit on Sunday and Pittsburgh on Monday, a back-to-back on the road before Colorado comes to town.
Picture a homeowner in a slow market who refuses to drop the listing price. Eventually somebody blinks, or the sign sits on the lawn all winter.
And Winnipeg should be careful here. Squeezing buyers for every last asset works when you have options, and nothing in what LeBrun described suggests the Jets have many.
That's a bad negotiating posture, plain and simple. It risks turning a manageable situation into a season-long distraction for a locker room that needs a clean start.
There's a cap angle too. Kyle Connor, at $12,000,000, is the only Jet among the league's 30 biggest cap hits.
Moving the goaltender's deal would hand Cheveldayoff real flexibility to reshape the roster around Connor. Keeping him means that money stays locked in the crease.
So who blinks first?
A contender scrambling for a goalie in November usually pays more than one browsing in September. Winnipeg might be betting on exactly that, and hoping an early injury somewhere does the negotiating for it.
Until then, every Hellebuyck start doubles as an audition. The Jets are still waiting for someone to meet their number.
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Should the Jets lower their asking price and move Connor Hellebuyck before the season gets going?
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