Why hasn’t Connor Hellebuyck been traded yet?

The 2026 NHL season is just under 40 days away, but rosters are far from finalized at this point in late summer. While most teams have a good idea of which players they will rely on, some key pieces could still be looking for a new home. 

For now, the Winnipeg Jets still have goalie Connor Hellebuyck on the roster. Yet, there are few assurances that he will be their backstop by the time the puck drops in October. In some ways, it’s shocking he’s not been traded yet — but could teams simply be waiting to see how their goalies stack up through training camp and preseason? 

On a recent episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton dove into why Hellebuyck has yet to be dealt. 

Yaremchuk: On Hellebuyck, one of our commenters commented: “Is Hellebuyck too expensive, or are teams gun shy over his playoff performance or non-playoff performances? I’ll just chime in quickly and I don’t even know if it’s that, I just think the Jets might be asking for the sun, the moon, and the stars here.

Hutton: I don’t think there’s any buyer beware here. If you have a chance to get Connor Hellebuyck as your goalie, you’re going to take it, but at what expense?

I just find it interesting if you’re the Winnipeg Jets and you’re sitting here with Connor Hellebuyck and Stuart Skinner making $3.75 million, and he’s making $8.5 million and a Winnipeg Jets team that was kind of miserable last year — and I know they came off a Presidents’ Trophy run, and you think that might be a blip on the radar. There might be some value there… And I think if you’re the Winnipeg Jets, at some point you want to move him because at 33, if you wait two or three more years, there’s no more value left in them.

You can catch the full mid-August episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE here…