Sunny Mehta bluffed the hockey world on goaltending

The New Jersey Devils stunned the hockey world on Friday when they landed disgruntled superstar goalie Connor Hellebuyck in a blockbuster trade with the Winnipeg Jets.

While the top contenders for Hellebuyck were reportedly the Buffalo Sabres, Utah Mammoth and Carolina Hurricanes, the Devils swooped in with an offer built around prospect Alexander Command and 24-year-old forward Dawson Mercer to obtain the three-time Vezina Trophy-winning goalie.

The surprise is only augmented by Devils general manager Sunny Mehta’s comments about the goalie position he made after taking over in the role this summer. Mehta publicly downplayed the notion that he would spend big on a goalie, telling NHL.com in an interview that he was “reluctant to invest significant assets” in the position.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by the host of The Sheet, Jeff Marek, to discuss Mehta’s clever misdirection that ultimately culminated with his all-in move on Friday.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I know you and Mr. Pagnotta were talking a little bit about New Jersey over the last while. You’ve called Sunny Mehta a poker player over on The Sheet. Let’s talk about it.

Jeff Marek: Yeah, he is… I think the one thing that we really need to keep in the back of our minds here is that Sunny Mehta’s background is not just analytics. It’s not just helping to develop a Stanley Cup winner in the Florida Panthers. It’s poker. And what we just saw was a great bluff by an emerging elite general manager in the NHL in Sunny Mehta. As he confused everybody by saying ‘The goaltending fine, it’s a volatile position, we’re fine with the three goalies that we have here…’ He gave us every indication publicly that he was not interested in “upgrading” this position. I met that for what I think, we’ll see where it goes, for what it is, and that was a bluff. This is a kind of new age master class being put together by Sunny Mehta. We shouldn’t be surprised. There’s a couple other things that are kind of happening in concert here. I’m not sure if you saw the expanded trade list for Dylan Larkin, but somehow New Jersey popped up on that list, too.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…