Bowness on why Dubois trade helped convince Hellebuyck to re-sign with Jets

TORONTO — Amid a resurgent 2023-24 campaign that’s seen the Winnipeg Jets take up residence among the Western Conference’s upper echelon, it’s easy to forget where the club sat just half a year ago.

Rewind to the final game of the team’s last post-season effort, and it seemed the end of an era was imminent, head coach Rick Bowness pulling no punches in relaying how “disappointed and disgusted” he was with his team.

A month later, the dismantling of the Jets’ core seemed to begin, as the club traded pivot Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings in a blockbuster swap that landed Winnipeg a trio of forwards in Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, and Rasmus Kupari, along with a second-round pick. Soon after, former captain Blake Wheeler’s tenure with the club came to an end as well, the Jets buying out the veteran, opening the door for him to sign on with the New York Rangers.

For a moment, it seemed franchise cornerstones Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele would be the next to go, the pair both heading into the final seasons of their contracts as the franchise appeared to be heading in the wrong direction.

Instead, just as the 2023-24 season began, the duo signed on long-term, inking matching seven-year, $59.5-million deals. According to their head coach, it was the blockbuster that remade the club’s forward corps that convinced his star netminder to return.

“I know after talking to him, he was very pleased with the trade we made with the L.A. Kings,” Bowness said of his goaltender Thursday as the 2024 NHL All-Star festivities began, thinking back to the off-season that set up Winnipeg’s revival. “He wanted to make sure that we were invested in winning the Stanley Cup. He told us after the season — the Vezina, yeah, the money, yeah, but he wants to win the Stanley Cup.

“I think after we made the trade, and he saw that we were making the good moves that we made — that we’re a stronger team, that he has a chance to win — I think that had more bearing than anything.”

Much has been made of how the departure of previously key figures like Dubois and Wheeler has contributed to the campaign Winnipeg’s put together to this point, one that’s seen them compile the fourth-most points in the league through the first half of 2023-24. Not to mention Hellebucyk and fellow UFA-to-be Scheifele removing the question of whether they would stay or go, shifting focus to the season at hand.

Bowness admits the clarity has had a positive impact on his team.

“The whole thing is, who’s in and who’s out? You can’t have one foot out the door, because [you] don’t want to be here. That doesn’t work. It affects the whole group,” the coach said Thursday. “When we went to camp and they signed, it was a strong signal to every player in that organization, our fanbase, the city of Winnipeg, that okay, these guys are in. They’re all in, and they’re thrilled to be back — they want to be Winnipeg Jets.

“When I took over last summer, in the calls I made to the players, every one of them said, ‘We just want players here that want to be a Winnipeg Jet. That’s all we want.’ And that’s what they got.”

For Hellebuyck himself, the criteria was simple.

Coming off a season that saw the 30-year-old earn the third Vezina nomination of his career — the longtime Jet claimed the trophy in 2020 — the offers surely would’ve been plentiful had he waited to hit the open market, or requested a trade out of town.

That he chose to return came down to one thing: his belief that these Jets can go all the way.

“I think we’re in a win-at-all-costs type of mode,” Hellebuyck said Thursday. “That’s the reason I signed back with them. They know how badly I want to win a Cup. I’m not interested in a rebuild.

“I believe that we’re all on the same page, of trying to win it while I’m there.”