Why Buffalo should be the next stop for Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck

The waves are choppier, the winds gustier, but the Winnipeg Jets have faced this storm before. And they’ve always found a way to emerge in one piece on the shore.

There’s no overstating the magnitude of franchise goalie Connor Hellebuyck going public with a trade request that would remove him from Winnipeg. For everything general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has dealt with in the past, nothing compares to — with the whole world knowing the player wants to move on — trading a guy many see as the best at his position who is one year removed from being named league MVP and seven months from a career-defining performance at the Olympics.

Jacob Trouba, Patrik Laine and Pierre-Luc Dubois were all great players in their own right, but none of them approach Hellebuyck’s current standing in the game.

Still, Cheveldayoff’s ability to recoup quality returns for all three of those players — again, when everybody knew their time in Winnipeg was ending, one way or another — should be a comforting precedent.

Neal Pionk — a little-known, undersized defenceman when the Jets got him from the Rangers in the Trouba deal in 2019 — has been steady-Eddy on the right side of Winnipeg’s top four for seven seasons. In 2021, Cheveldayoff turned Laine into Dubois, who also ultimately didn’t want to make Manitoba a long-term home. After two 60-point seasons with the Jets, Cheveldayoff shipped Dubois — whose status as a soon-to-be UFA gave him loads of leverage — to the L.A. Kings for a package that included current first-line stud Gabe Vilardi. At 27 years old — and a robust six-foot-three, 215 pounds — Vilardi is coming off a career-best 30 goals, played all 82 for the first time in his NHL tenure and is locked in on a palatable cap hit of $7.5 million through 2030-31.

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By getting back on the phone with the Buffalo Sabres and understanding that, even without asking for the moon, there’s a great deal to be struck.

On Thursday, Sportsnet’s Emily Sadler outlined five reasonable landing spots for Hellebuyck, and there’s a reason Buffalo topped the list. When the smoke first started billowing around him in June, we thought a deal built around the fourth-overall pick the Sabres acquired from Chicago might work well.

Speaking of the draft, things there worked out fantastically for the Jets when Swedish centre Viggo Björck fell to them at No. 8. Winnipeg has forever been in search of a second line that can support the trio of Mark Scheifele between Vilardi and Kyle Connor, and drafting Björck was a meaningful step toward filling that void long-term.

Now how about getting a couple more forwards who are more NHL-ready than Björck from Buffalo?

If Cheveldayoff is demanding two prime roster players from Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen, it’s time to adjust his targets.