Jets Trade Connor Hellebuyck to the Devils as Saga Ends

TL;DR: The Jets traded Connor Hellebuyck to the Devils on Friday morning, Oct 23, the same day his unpaid suspension was set to lift. The Devils confirmed the deal: forwards Dawson Mercer and Nick Bjugstad, goaltender Nico Daws, prospect Alexander Command, a 2029 second-rounder and a 2027 seventh-rounder go to Winnipeg. Thursday’s plan to delay his physical past the Heritage Classic is moot. The cap mechanics of the deal still have not been fully explained.

Update, Oct 25 evening: The Heritage Classic is played, Montreal won 2-1, and Hellebuyck’s promised full message to Jets fans has not yet appeared. The update is at the end of this article. Update, Oct 24 afternoon: Hellebuyck has now spoken as a Devil. His first comments, and the message he postponed for Winnipeg fans, are in the update at the end of this article.

Update, Oct 23 afternoon: This page first covered Thursday’s reported plan to delay Hellebuyck’s physical. The trade happened Friday morning, so the delay idea is now history. The full return and what it means are below.

Friday morning ended it. The Winnipeg Jets traded Connor Hellebuyck to the New Jersey Devils, the teams announced, closing the months-long standoff on the exact day the goaltender’s suspension for skipping camp was set to expire. What was supposed to be a procedural decision day — trade, return, or a paid absence — became the day the saga closed instead. The story this site tracked through the holdout timeline and Thursday’s delay-the-physical report has its resolution, and the full return is richer than Friday’s first whispers suggested. The money talk is over too: the tap on the forfeited-salary tracker runs dry as of Friday either way.

What did the Jets get back?

A roster, a prospect and two picks. The confirmed package, per the Devils’ own release: forwards Dawson Mercer and Nick Bjugstad, goaltender Nico Daws, the rights to forward Alexander Command, New Jersey’s own second-round pick in the 2029 draft and its seventh-rounder in 2027. Command is the headline long-term piece — the Devils took him 12th overall in June, and he has been producing in the Swedish junior league. Mercer, 24, has scored between 17 and 27 goals in each of his five full seasons, all played in full, though he is goalless with four assists through ten games this year. Bjugstad, 34, tore a pectoral muscle in September and will miss four to six months; he will be an unrestricted free agent after the season. Daws, 25, is the netminder going the other way in the short term, with a career .897 save percentage across 59 NHL games.

What happened to Thursday’s delay plan?

Nothing, which is the point. TSN’s Darren Dreger reported a sense the two sides could agree to push Hellebuyck’s physical, the step that restores him to the active roster after suspension, until after Sunday’s Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium, keeping the outdoor game free of the suspension story. That plan never had to be invoked. A completed trade wipes the procedural question off the board entirely: there is no longer a Winnipeg roster for Hellebuyck to rejoin. The fourth door from Thursday’s reporting — do nothing and wait out the weekend — got closed by the one outcome everyone was waiting for.

Why did the Devils want him now?

Because their net was sinking a playoff-caliber team. New Jersey was 6-4-0 despite a combined .880 save percentage through ten games, with Jake Allen at .883 and Daws at .874, and Jacob Markstrom had been moved to Florida in July. The fit is obvious in a way it rarely is with in-season goalie deals: the Devils are in a window now, the Jets are not, and Hellebuyck at 33 remains the position’s most decorated active player — three Vezinas, the 2025 Hart Trophy, and a gold medal with Team USA at the 2026 Olympics. He carries an $8.5 million cap hit through 2030-31 with a full no-movement clause he evidently waived to make this happen.

How did the deal come together?

Quietly, then all at once. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported the Jets were getting terrible offers as recently as the weekend; talks progressed Thursday night and closed Friday morning. Elliotte Friedman first pointed to New Jersey as the destination, and Carolina and Utah stayed in the chase to the end, per The Fourth Period. Shesterkin’s season-ending injury in New York had briefly put another star in the goalie-market conversation, but the cap math there never worked. Thursday’s coverage also noted Winnipeg was 4-3-2 without its starter, a start that lowered the club’s urgency while raising the awkwardness. The awkwardness is now gone with him to Newark.

What is still unknown?

The cap math and the debut dates. Hellebuyck’s $8.5 million hit against the Devils’ projected ~$1.16 million in space, with roughly $5.1 million going the other way, leaves a gap no outlet has yet closed — retention or a corresponding move is likely but unconfirmed. No quotes had surfaced from Mercer or Daws, and the cap gap is still unexplained, but Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff has now spoken, as detailed in the update below, and Hellebuyck himself has now spoken too, as detailed in the second update below. The reunion is already circled: the Devils play in Winnipeg on Nov. 10, per theScore, which gives the holdout story its epilogue date.

Update: Cheveldayoff breaks his silence

Update note (October 24, 2026): This article originally noted that no quotes had surfaced from either general manager beyond the Devils’ release. It has been updated with Kevin Cheveldayoff’s first public reaction.

The Jets’ general manager is fine with how it ended, and open about wishing it had ended sooner. “I’m very comfortable (with) what we accomplished here over the period of time,” Cheveldayoff said, via NHL.com. “I certainly wish we could have done it four months ago, or whatever, when the opportunity started and we were looking (for a trade), but here we are here today.”

That is the first on-the-record Jets voice since the trade, and it lands on the eve of the game the whole saga orbited. The Jets face Montreal in the Heritage Classic on Sunday, October 25, the fixture Thursday’s delay-the-physical plan was designed to get past. With Hellebuyck now a Devil, the Heritage Classic is simply Winnipeg’s next game, with Stuart Skinner as the undisputed starter. The reunion date still stands: New Jersey visits Winnipeg on November 10.

Update: Hellebuyck speaks in Newark

Update note (October 24, 2026): This article originally noted that no quotes had surfaced from Hellebuyck. He has now spoken, at his Saturday introduction in Newark.

The first words were for Winnipeg, and the rest will wait. Introduced by the Devils on Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after the trade, Hellebuyck fielded a question about Jets fans near the end of his press conference. “There is a lot that I need to say,” he said, “but they have their Heritage Classic game coming up, so as respect for them and the celebration of hockey, I’m gonna postpone that to a later date.” Then the line that travelled: “I hope they know I care about them.”

The posture is deliberate. Hellebuyck spent 11 seasons in Winnipeg, won three Vezina Trophies and the 2025 Hart Trophy there, and left after a trade request, a missed training camp and an unpaid suspension. A full farewell on Saturday would have landed on the eve of the Heritage Classic, the outdoor game the whole saga orbited. By postponing it, he handed Winnipeg its weekend back and kept his own message for later. TSN reports the Jets host Montreal outdoors at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday, and the reunion date stands: New Jersey visits Winnipeg on November 10. He also said he does not think he will need long to ramp up before returning, the New York Post reports, after a season spent waiting at home. The Devils introduced him before a game against Los Angeles at the Prudential Center on Saturday, and his debut is now the next date on this story.

Update: Heritage Classic played, message still to come

Update note (October 25, 2026): This article tracked Hellebuyck’s postponed message to Jets fans until after the Heritage Classic. The game is now played, and the message has not yet appeared.

Montreal beat Winnipeg 2-1 in the Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday, theScore reports, with second-period goals from Lane Hutson and Kaiden Guhle and 34 saves from rookie Jacob Fowler. Isak Rosen’s late goal spoiled Fowler’s shutout, and Montreal killed a Josh Anderson tripping penalty in the final 1:32 to hold on. Stuart Skinner, the undisputed Winnipeg starter this article named on Saturday, was in the Jets’ net for the outdoor game.

The result closes the weekend Hellebuyck’s postponement was designed to protect, but the message itself is still outstanding. No full farewell had surfaced in coverage by Sunday night, so the trigger this article has carried since Saturday, Hellebuyck’s full message to Jets fans, stays open rather than resolved. The next fixed date remains November 10, when New Jersey visits Winnipeg, and his Devils debut remains the other live trigger. The Jets, meanwhile, leave the outdoor game on a losing run that now extends to five straight defeats, with the post-Hellebuyck era starting with a loss in the showcase game itself.