The Devils shocked the hockey world a few days ago, acquiring superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for a handful of assets that, ultimately, don’t mean much for New Jersey as far as day-to-day operations go.
While most have the opinion that New Jersey made out well and is acquiring the player who most fills the needs of the team both now and in the long haul, some have expressed concern with the fact that the Devils paid a premium for a player coming off of a down season. It’s an objective truth — Hellebuyck had his worst statistical season in quite a long time, playing to the tune of a career-first sub-.900 save percentage (SV%) season and having his worst goals saved above expected (GSAx) since his sophomore campaign in 2016-17. To boot, he will be 34 at the end of the 2026-27 season and had minor surgery in the midst of last campaign.
For Devils fans, though, there shouldn't be a worry despite all of that.
The fact of the matter is that Hellebuyck's body of work as a whole will almost certainly mean that his 2025-26 self was an aberration. He was behind an extraordinarily slow and leaky team, with arguably the worst environment of his career in front of him. Despite missing a few weeks of hockey, he appeared in 57 games, which was tied for fifth-most in the league. Requiring surgery and immediately coming in to arguably the heaviest workload in the league certainly did not do him justice, especially given the caliber of team in front of him.
Prior to last season, a down year in which Hellebuyck still had a positive GSAx, he had gone six straight seasons with a GSAx of at least 16.6 per HockeyStats -- which only one Devils goaltender in the analytics era has accomplished (Cory Schneider, twice). In four of those seasons, he had a GSAx of 21.8 or higher, and in two of those, he surpassed the 32-GSAx threshold. By definition, he has been the most consistently strong goalie of the analytics era.
Yes, Hellebuyck is only getting older. Yes, he is coming off of knee surgery. However, his playstyle inherently ages well by virtue of not moving nearly as much in net as his comrades, and he has had more than a full off-season to recover. To boot, we saw his true capabilities behind a strong defense at the 2026 Olympics, where he backstopped Team USA to a Gold Medal against the toughest competition he has faced or will ever face moving forward.
The Devils and Hurricanes were rumored to have been the two most-interested teams in the Hellebuyck sweepstakes-- if the likes of Sunny Mehta and Eric Tulsky, the GMs running the most analytically-driven front offices in the league, are the two most-interested parties, there's clearly something to be said about how confident they are that 2025-26 was an anomaly. Especially given Mehta's overall reluctance to invest assets into a position he deems to be unpredictable.
Hellebuyck isn't that. He's predictably excellent. And he should be in 2026-27 and beyond.
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