Jets Suspend Goaltender Connor Hellebuyck

Winnipeg have suspended goaltender Connor Hellebuyck for failing to report to training camp, ESPN reported on 17 September 2026.

The 33-year-old American asked for a trade on 27 August, when his agent, Ray Petko, published a statement on his behalf confirming the request. Winnipeg did not receive an offer for the goaltender they judged attractive enough, and Hellebuyck has stayed away from camp since.

General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff is due to face the media on Thursday, 17 September, by all accounts to set out the club's next step.

Hellebuyck has spent his whole NHL career in Winnipeg since the Jets took him 130th overall at the 2012 draft. He has won the Vezina Trophy three times as the league's best regular-season goaltender and once collected the Hart Trophy as its most valuable player. His contract, worth an average of $8.5m a season, runs to 2031.

Team-mates have already had to answer for the rift. Defenceman Josh Morrissey said on 15 September that the request was a personal disappointment to him, though he accepted the business reasoning behind it. Captain Adam Lowry had said days earlier that the decision was a family matter for Hellebuyck and would not split the dressing room.

A suspension turns a contract standoff into an urgent one. Winnipeg open the season on 29 September, and sorting out the net, whether from within the squad or through a trade of their own, cannot wait much longer.