The Hellebuyck Trade Talk Went Quiet. Friedman Still Expects a Move Eventually
Connor Hellebuyck trade rumors indicate the market is quiet, but Elliotte Friedman predicts the Jets goaltender will be moved eventually.
Everything below is speculation and reporting on speculation. No trade involving Connor Hellebuyck has been made, and the Winnipeg Jets have not said one is coming. What follows is what credible insiders have said publicly, attributed to them, and nothing more.
The short version is that the loudest story of the NHL summer has stopped making noise. Speaking on NHL Network on August 11, Elliotte Friedman was blunt about how little was out there. “I hear it’s quiet,” Friedman said. “You know, EJ. I think that, I’m with you. I still think he gets moved at some point in time, but I think right now, like I asked around today, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t get a lot.” He added that people he checked with told him “quiet, quiet,” and suggested momentum could build again as training camp approaches, while pointedly declining to promise anything was imminent.
That exchange came with EJ Hradek arguing on the same broadcast that Hellebuyck ends up traded, plausibly to Buffalo, with talks likely to intensify as the season nears. Both men were theorizing. Neither reported a deal in progress.
Why Winnipeg does not have to do anything
The reason this has been able to go quiet without resolving is structural. Hellebuyck is signed through 2030-31 at an $8.5-million average annual value on the seven-year extension he took in Winnipeg, and he currently holds a full no-movement clause. He cannot be traded anywhere he does not approve, and the Jets cannot be pressured into a discount by a deadline that does not exist in August.
The clause does soften eventually. Reporting on his contract structure indicates the full no-movement converts to a modified no-trade from 2027-28, at which point he submits a list of teams he cannot be dealt to rather than holding an outright veto. That is a long way from now, and it cuts against the idea that Winnipeg is under any time pressure.
The Buffalo link, and the case against it
Buffalo keeps surfacing because Buffalo is the most obvious fit and because there was real contact. NHL Trade Rumor reported the two clubs held talks ahead of draft weekend that did not produce anything. Multiple outlets have since suggested Hellebuyck would be open to that destination, though those reports trace back to insider characterizations rather than anything on the record from the player.
The Hockey News has pushed back on the assumption that Buffalo is the only landing spot, arguing other destinations are just as plausible. That is worth holding onto. A no-movement clause makes the player’s list the market, and nobody outside a very small group knows what is on it.
What Canadian bettors should take from a quiet August
The practical read is that Winnipeg’s 2026-27 futures pricing is currently being set with a Hart Trophy holder and three-time Vezina winner in the crease, because that is the roster as it actually exists today. A trade would move those numbers hard in both directions, and it would move them fast, without much warning. Friedman’s own framing is the useful one here: something may well happen closer to camp, and right now there is nothing to act on.
Treat any August Hellebuyck headline the way the insiders reporting it are treating it. Quiet is not the same as resolved, and speculation is not the same as news.
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