Technically speaking, Connor Hellebuyck‘s suspension from the Winnipeg Jets did end Friday. It just had a different outcome with the three-time Vezina Trophy winner being traded to the New Jersey Devils.
Hellebuyck, who won the Hart Trophy in 2025, will go to the Devils in exchange for forward Dawson Mercer, forward Nick Bjugstad, goaltender Nico Daws, prospect center Alexander Command, a 2027 seventh-round pick and a 2029 second-round pick.
Let’s take a look at what this means for both teams and how each front office performed:
How Devils general manager Sunny Mehta arrived at this place goes back to one of his earliest moves. He knew the going rate for a starting goaltender based off the return New Jersey received back in late June when Mehta traded Jacob Markstrom to the Florida Panthers. Markstrom brought back a return of three forwards. It was a move that gave Mehta, or any GM, more insight into what it would take to land someone who is arguably the greatest goaltender of his generation in Hellebuyck.
Trading Markstrom is also the same reason why the need to attain Hellebuyck — or any proven No. 1 goalie — became a priority for New Jersey. That became even more evident considering how the Devils have started the regular season. Opening their first 10 games with a tandem of Jake Allen and Daws had the Devils entering Friday in the second and final Eastern Conference wild-card spot — with the context that the Devils appear to be much better than their place in the standings.
New Jersey has used this season to show it has one of the strongest defensive structures in the NHL. The Devils came into the weekend allowing the second-fewest high-danger scoring chances per 60, the third-fewest scoring chances allowed per 60, and allowed the 10th fewest-shots per 60.
Combine that with a 59.74% shot share in 5-on-5 play. That figure is so strong that only the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes with a 59.79% shot share have held onto the puck more than the Devils in 5-on-5 play. So how is it that a team that controls the puck, limits high-danger chances, scoring chances and shots is in the last wild-card spot? Especially when they are averaging the 12th most goals per game?
An argument could be had that it’s because of the disconnect in their goaltending, and the fact the Devils have the 13th lowest team save percentage in 5-on-5 play at 89.95%. On the whole, they have a .880 team save percentage across all scenarios and that’s tied for the 23rd lowest mark in the league.
Placing Hellebuyck, who has faced the second-most shots in the NHL since 2021-22, in that sort of a system hypothetically could see the Devils win more frequently by surrounding him with that level of defensive infrastructure. And if it does? That presents the possibility that Mehta and the Devils are banking on in that Hellebuyck can see them emerge as a legitimate threat that can both challenge in the Eastern Conference and perhaps have serious designs on winning a Stanley Cup.
That’s the short-term view how this can be digested. The long-term view is that the Devils, barring some sort of massive change, are going to be expected to challenge for a Stanley Cup with the 33-year-old Hellebuyck under contract for four more years at $8.5 million annually.
Building around homegrown talent like Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes has been a process. The Devils have used a variety of avenues from free agency to trades to build what they believe is the best possible team to help a core that has since added another homegrown player in Luke Hughes to that group. There have been times when the Devils look like they’ve been ready to aspire to more. But then there have been those moments when they’ve been left to ask some probing questions about how they reach their desired destination.
Getting Hellebuyck has changed the equation. Hellebuyck missing training camp because of his suspension means there is likely going to be an adjustment period, unless he’s able to seamlessly perform immediately. Receiving the best version of Hellebuyck to a team that has used the first 10 games to prove they can consistently score and defend makes the Devils such an attractive team that looks as if they could be on the verge of something major. At the same time? The regular season, while important, isn’t where this trade will ultimately be judged. It’ll be in the playoffs as the franchise seeks to win a Stanley Cup — one of the few accolades Hellebyuck doesn’t already have in his collection.
Any deal Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff was going to reach for Hellebuyck was one that had to help the franchise both immediately and for the foreseeable future. It appears this particular trade has a chance to do both with the caveat that it was always going to be a challenge to find the perfect return for the best player the Jets have drafted over the last 20 years.
That’s why the place to start is with what it could mean for the Jets right now. Scoring was so much of an issue for the Jets in the 2025-26 season that three players — Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Gabriel Vilardi — combined to score 40% of Winnipeg’s goals. It was a drastic contrast compared to the 2024-25 season when the Jets won the Presidents’ Trophy largely due to getting contributions throughout different parts of their lineup.
Scoring, at least to start the season, remains an issue. The Jets came into Friday averaging the 25th fewest goals per game at a rate of 2.60 per contest. What only adds to those scoring challenges is how they’ve struggled to consistently create opportunities when they’ve had the puck. They are averaging the 12th fewest shots per 60, the 13th fewest scoring chances per 60 but remain around league average in terms of high-danger chances per 60. Plus, the Jets have the 11th lowest shot-share in 5-on-5 play at 47.30%.
Expecting Mercer to be the lone solution to those problems isn’t realistic. Asking that he’ll help when it comes to providing another option beyond Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi, however, is a fair expectation. Mercer is a three-time 20-goal scorer that finished last season with 20 goals and 42 points while averaging 18:13 in ice time last season. That level of production would have made him the Jets’ fourth-leading goalscorer and had him fifth on the team in points.
Mercer, who has one year of team control remaining after this season, has zero goals and four assists through 10 games to start this season. The 24-year-old’s ability to attain consistency is likely going to play an important role in a campaign that appears to be at an already sensitive stage given how the year has begun for the Jets. Winnipeg entered Friday with the same point total as the Colorado Avalanche for the second and final Western Conference wild-card spot.
The Avalanche have a plus-10 goal differential while the remaining four teams in the Central Division that are either above or have the same number of points as the Jets also have positive goal differentials. The Jets currently sit at minus-three having lost their last four games.
Bjugstad, who had six goals and nine points in 61 games last season, is still recovering an offseason pectoral muscle surgery that saw him begin the year on injured reserve. His initial diagnosis had him set to return at some point in the next four to six months, which places his earliest return around January. Bjugstad is in the final year of his contract and it’s possible he could once again be a deadline day departure should the Jets seek draft capital if they’re out of the playoff chase. The Jets have 28 draft picks over the next three years after the Hellebuyck trade.
Daws, who is 2-2 with a 2.78 goals-against average and a .874 save percentage, is joining a team that has the fourth-highest save percentage in 5-on-5 play. While he provides the Jets with another option in net, there’s also the fact that he does give them a more proven alternative should they need it. The Jets have used Clay Stevenson in tandem with Stuart Skinner as Stevenson came into this season with five games of NHL experience, whereas Daws already had 55 games and is more than familiar with the demands of being in a tandem at this level.
Getting Command, who was the 12th pick in the 2026 draft, gives the Jets another potential top-six or top-nine option for the future as he continues to develop in Sweden. Command has seven goals and 12 points playing in the U-20 Nationell against younger competition, while he has no points in six goals while playing for Orebro in the Swedish Hockey League, the strongest league in the Swedish hockey system.
