We’ve been watching three different front offices circle the same goaltender for weeks, and not one of them has put a real offer on the table. That’s the state of the Connor Hellebuyck trade rumors as September turns into October: the Buffalo Sabres, the Utah Mammoth and the San Jose Sharks are all reportedly monitoring the Winnipeg Jets’ star goaltender, per Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, while Hellebuyck sits out of training camp by choice. The Jets made the standoff official on their end too, suspending him last week for failing to report.
None of this happened overnight. Hellebuyck’s camp turned the quiet ask that turned into a holdout back in August, when agent Ray Petkau confirmed publicly on Aug. 27 that his client wanted out of Winnipeg. A month later, Hellebuyck still carries a full no-movement clause on a contract that runs through 2030 at an $8.5 million cap hit (protection that doesn’t soften into a 10-team no-trade list until July 2027). Nothing about that contract forces this standoff. Hellebuyck is choosing it, betting that missed starts move Winnipeg faster than patience would.
Underneath the individual drama, that’s the actual story: the market has already decided this ends in a trade. Nobody covering the Jets is framing this as a situation that resolves with Hellebuyck back in the crease making saves for Winnipeg in November. The only real question left is timing, and specifically whether Winnipeg gets to set the terms or gets forced into whatever the market offers once the story has dragged through six weeks of regular-season games without going away.
Who’s Actually Circling Connor Hellebuyck Right Now?
Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos has named the Buffalo Sabres, Utah Mammoth and San Jose Sharks as teams monitoring Connor Hellebuyck’s situation, per his first trade board of the 2026-27 season. Elliotte Friedman separately reported that the Sharks and Jets have already kicked the tires on a deal. None of the three has made Winnipeg a formal offer as Hellebuyck sits out training camp.
The three reports aren’t remotely equal in weight, though. Kypreos’ board also included names like Marchenko, Nikishin, Larkin and Robertson, so Hellebuyck is one line among several. Utah’s mention carries the least detail by far (no reported conversation, no cap breakdown, just a name on the board), which is worth remembering before treating all three as equally live.
The Friedman report matters more than the other two combined, mostly because of what he couldn’t confirm. He wasn’t sure which side raised the idea first, which is its own small tell: the conversation is real enough to exist, not yet serious enough for either team to claim credit for it. Buffalo and Utah are still surveillance (monitoring a situation, it turns out, costs nothing). San Jose is at least a phone call.
Why Hasn’t Winnipeg Just Made a Deal?
Because the Jets have already tried, and didn’t like what came back. Buffalo is one of two teams that already said no to Winnipeg’s price this summer, with a framework that stalled out before it ever became an offer worth accepting. The Jets have spoken with teams around the draft and through the summer without getting the return they want, and by that same report, Winnipeg has “very little reason to panic.”
I think that’s the part getting lost in the noise. Winnipeg was always willing to trade Hellebuyck at the right price; what it won’t do is trade him cheap, and nothing that’s happened since August has forced the Jets off that number. A suspended goaltender skipping camp is bad optics. It is not, by itself, leverage for the other side of the table.
Teams that already own a legitimate asset rarely move fast just because the pressure campaign gets louder. Winnipeg has a capable insurance option in Stuart Skinner, a full season before the no-movement clause even softens, and a public record of walking away from offers it didn’t like. Patience is cheap when the alternative is selling low on a goaltender this established. The Jets know that. So does every team calling to ask about him.
Does San Jose Actually Make Sense?
Barely, and only with help. The Sharks have roughly $3.3 million in cap space against Hellebuyck’s $8.5 million hit, which means absorbing him requires moving something else out first. San Jose also already has Askarov, a young goalie it’s building around, and a summer spent signing Nurse, Trouba and Marchment that reads like a team trying to win now, not retool in net.
Here’s the post making the rounds on the Friedman report:
https://x.com/GinoHard_/status/2102920459234795980
That’s the whole San Jose case in one sentence: interest confirmed, structure unresolved. A trade needs a third team, a cap dump, or San Jose deciding Askarov can wait a year. None of those are close to happening yet, and Winnipeg has no incentive to discount Hellebuyck just to make San Jose’s math easier. If the Sharks want in, the work of fitting him under their number is theirs to do, not Winnipeg’s problem to solve for them.
The leverage question actually cuts against the read most people have. The Jets have shopped Hellebuyck before, gotten offers they didn’t like, and walked away clean each time (Buffalo’s failed framework this summer is exhibit A). What’s changed is the calendar. Camp is underway, the suspension is public, and every day this drags into the regular season makes Winnipeg’s asking price harder to defend without a result attached to it. We’ve seen this shape before with other unhappy stars: the longer a holdout stretches into games that count, the more the public narrative pressures the team holding the asset, regardless of what its actual trade board says.
My read: the Jets still hold the better hand today, because nobody has forced their number down yet. That changes fast once games start counting. If San Jose, Buffalo or Utah shows up with a real offer before Winnipeg’s first bad week in net with Stuart Skinner, the Jets negotiate from choice. If not, they’re negotiating on a deadline they didn’t pick, and a front office that’s said no twice already will find saying no a third time gets a lot harder once the losses start piling up next to Hellebuyck’s name in every recap. Watch San Jose’s cap sheet before the other two — that’s the team with an actual mechanism to make this real, and mechanism is the one thing Buffalo and Utah still don’t have.
