Winnipeg Jets: Connor Hellebuyck belongs in Vezina Trophy conversation

The Vezina Trophy race is going to be a very close one, but Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck should be on everyone’s ballot.

Few things get NHL fans worked up more than the Vezina Trophy. Everyone has a different way of evaluating goalies and everyone refuses to believe their version of kung-fu isn’t the strongest. This season, though, Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck looks like a candidate everyone can get behind.

Hellebuyck was a Vezina Trophy finalist back in 2017-18 after leading his team to their best regular season in franchise history. He also helped cover a lot of the Jets warts and allowed them to be an aggressive offensive juggernaut. However, Hellebuyck lost to Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators.

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He followed up that season with a solid, but certainly less impressive, season. Hellebuyck no longer masked the Jets’ flaws. To be fair, those flaws, which were previously merely wrinkles, became major problems.

A goaltender’s job, in my opinion, is to make up for their team’s mistakes. Ultimately, they are the only player in a position to erase mistakes. No matter how great Connor McDavid is, if an Oilers defenseman blows his coverage, he can’t do a darn thing about it. The goalie, however, can.

So far, Hellebuyck has turned a flawed Jets team into a postseason contender. As bad as they were defensively last season, they’ve been even worse this season. Which shouldn’t be surprising considering they traded Jacob Trouba and Dustin Byfuglien is pondering retirement.

Just how bad have they been? They’ve been a tire fire. All of these stats are at five-on-five and are as of Monday, Nov. 18.

• Expected goals against per hour: 2.43 (fourth-worst)
• Scoring chances against per hour: 25.76 (13th)
• High danger chances against per hour: 11.36 (fifth-most)
• Shots against per hour: 31.81 (seventh-most)

Stats via Natural Stat Trick

As bad as the Jets have been at five-on-five, their penalty kill has been even worse.

• Expected goals against per hour: 7.63 (third-worst)
• Scoring chances against per hour: 56.13 (third-worst)
• High danger chances against per hour: 24.17 (fourth-worst)
• Shots against per hour: 68.6 (worst)

Stats via Natural Stat Trick

Injuries have left the already shallow Jets blueline depth hurting. Anytime Neal Pionk and Dmitry Kulikov are averaging over 18 minutes per game at five-on-five and 20 minutes overall, you know things are ugly. Hellebuyck has been phenomenal for the Jets, especially at five-on-five.

• 5v5 save percentage: .939% (fourth-highest)
• 5v5 GSAA (goals saved above average): 9.54 (highest)
• 5v5 GSAA per hour: 0.74 (fourth-highest)
• 5v5 expected goals against per hour: 2.44 (seventh-highest)

Stats via Natural Stat Trick

This is a pretty deep year for goaltenders. Lots of goalies have a strong case for the Vezina Trophy in mid-November. Darcy Kuemper is proving last season wasn’t a fluke. Robin Lehner has arguably been better this year than he was last year when he was a Vezina Trophy finalist. You just don’t notice it because instead of having a Barry Trotz-coached defense in front of him, he has the Chicago Blackhawks.

Thomas Greiss and Semyon Varlamov are both having great seasons for the New York Islanders. Vezina voters haven’t been kind to tandem goalies who split starts in the past, but maybe last season is a sign voters have come around. Carey Price is quietly having a really good season too.

It’s early in the season. Goaltending is hard to predict and even harder to evaluate. But right now, I don’t think any goalie has been better than Hellebuyck. If the Jets make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it will be because he dragged them there.