Jets Takeaways: Connor Hellebuyck making case for Hart Trophy

Connor Hellebuyck sure put himself through a lower-body workout.

Kick saves. Sliding saves. Glove saves.

“Definitely toe saves,” Hellebuyck told reporters after stopping 43 of 44 shots in the Winnipeg Jets’ 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild. “My toe was hot.”

Monday night was another instance of Hellebuyck doing what he does best: take over games.

He relishes an opportunity to square off against a fellow top-five team. And dealing with all those shots? No big deal. He boasts a 31-12-17 record when he faces 40-plus shots.

Having played 60-plus games in each of the last three seasons, the 31-year-old workhorse is the last of a dying breed at a position that’s shifting away from the ‘starter’ and ‘backup’ distinctions and inching closer towards ‘1A’ and ‘1B’ tandems.

Right now, he’s the best goaltender on the planet. A second straight Vezina? Book it. What about a first career Hart Trophy nomination? Don’t scoff at it.

While we’ve only seen two goalies crowned league MVP in the last quarter-century, you can’t overlook Hellebuyck’s 2024-25 campaign so far.

Hellebuyck ranks first in save percentage (.929), goals-against average (2.06), goals saved above average (13.54) and goals saved above expected (13.54) among netminders that have played at least eight games, according to NaturalStatTrick.com. He already has three shutouts (another league-high) and if you don’t already know how absurd that is — keep in mind no goalie recorded more than six in either of the last two seasons. And he’s doing that all the while shouldering a heavy workload, starting in nearly 80 per cent of Winnipeg’s games.

Sounds like a textbook MVP to me.

That said, it depends how one defines the award. Some people will, whether they like to admit it or not, vote for the best player — which is why Connor McDavid always has a healthy dose of first-place votes — while others will take a more literal approach. The latter group bases the decision off which players' contributions have been the biggest driver for a team.

Considering the Jets’ team success has also been driven by a high-flying offence, Hellebuyck’s case might be a tough sell to some. But make no mistake, the Jets are as good as they are because of Hellebuyck. Not the other way around.

“He is our backbone,” Nino Niederreiter said after Hellebuyck pitched a shutout against Utah earlier this month.

And if he keeps playing this way, how could he not finish in the top three of Hart voting?

Jets' Swiss-Army Knife strikes

Depending on your expectations when he arrived two summers ago, Alex Iafallo may not be your cup of tea.

Armchair GM’s often discard him and his $4-million cap hit when building the optimal Jets roster, thinking those dollars would be better served elsewhere.

But Iafallo embodies a phrase that talent evaluators use as the ultimate measuring stick: he’s a player you win with.

“He's such an all-purpose player,” coach Scott Arniel told reporters after Monday’s game. “We use him on the penalty kill, he's out there on the power play. Then when you need him to shut down the opposition he does a great job. And he's a real good pro. We know what we're getting every night from him.”

Iafallo scored two goals — a beautiful backhand finish from the slot after a hard forecheck, plus a net-front power play deflection — and deserved a third assist on the second goal of the game. As the Jets transitioned the puck out of the defensive zone following a chance against, Iafallo, unintentionally, created an odd-man rush. After taking exception to a little jab given to Hellebuyck after a shot attempt, Joel Eriksson-Ek and Yakov Trenin became fixated with Iafallo in the defensive zone — spending several seconds completely concentrating on him and disregarding the play at the other end. It essentially created a mini 5-on-3 and Niederreiter capitalized on it. Whatever Iafallo did to annoy those two that much, worked.

Now, aside from that one-in-a-million play, Iafallo’s true value doesn’t show up on the box score. He’s an exceptional forechecker, arguably one of the most aggressive in the entire league. A lot of it has to do with his stick work — he’s got a knack for knocking down passes and fishing out pucks along the wall — but he also has a high-end hockey IQ, which is why Arniel deploys him in so many different spots.

If there’s ever a top-nine — or even top-six — injury, Iafallo likely would be first in line for a minutes increase.

Free(d) Ville

Ville Heinola played in his first NHL game in nearly 700 days. All things considered, he looked pretty solid. While there were times where he looked like a fish out of water when it came to the speed of the game (which was to be expected), his positioning and reads were sound. He did a good job tying up Marcus Johansson in front of the net in the first period and also drew a holding call in the third period.

“There was a lot of things I liked,” Arniel told reporters. “He has patience and poise, we know that, especially on the breakouts … I think that there's a couple things where the speed, he kind of recognized that they're coming in a hurry. But at the end of the day, that's what we want. We want to get his feet wet.”

And placing Heinola with Colin Miller — as opposed to just thrusting him into a top-four role right away — was the right call. Those two were on a pairing together in training camp and in sheltered minutes, I think there’s something there. They both move the puck extremely well, can make quick exit passes and neither player is afraid to jump into the rush offensively. I was pleasantly surprised with how noticeable those two were in what was a tight-checking affair against Minnesota.