Connor Hellebuyck Is A Devil

Connor Hellebuyck was in purgatory, and now he’s living it up in Hell. It sounds like he preferred both to Winnipeg. After 11 seasons with the Jets, the three-time Vezina-winning goalie played his first game for another NHL team, earning a win for the New Jersey Devils in Dallas on Tuesday night.

Hellebuyck got to the States by forcing his way out of Manitoba, and the 33-year-old’s status as the President’s favorite player, a playoff choker, and a possible tender-in-decline as he comes off his worst season since the beginning of his career all serve to temper the excitement of his move to Jersey. But goalie was a hole that the Devils desperately needed filled, and the modest package they sent in return—basically the 20-goal scorer Dawson Mercer and the kid they drafted 12th overall this year, Alexander Command—means they should be a better team right away.

The pressure is certainly on Jersey to show some real improvement. After a promising first-round playoff win over the Rangers in 2023—their first series win since advancing to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012—a mix of injuries and plateaued youngsters have kept the Devils from making any real noise. It was supposed to be a new era for Jersey when Jack Hughes and his fellow kids broke out, but so far the team’s most important players have yet to prove they can lead a contender. However, there are reasons to be optimistic about their depth, if not their top-end talent. Raiding Nashville for the all-around solid Luke Evangelista, who’s still got a high ceiling at just 24, was perhaps my favorite move of the offseason, while another winger, rookie Amadeus Lombardi, is one of my top newcomers to watch for reasons that are only about 80 percent related to his name. (His siblings are Symphony and Ulysses, by the way.) The most glaring weakness has been in goal, with Jacob Markström failing to be the answer in the last two seasons. So the buyck stops here.