{"id":166695,"date":"2026-08-13T15:33:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/166695\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T15:33:06","slug":"josh-morrissey-hopes-connor-hellebuyck-remains-with-winnipeg-jets-confident-team-can-bounce-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/166695\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Morrissey hopes Connor Hellebuyck remains with Winnipeg Jets, \u2018confident\u2019 team can bounce back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Morrissey<\/a> is well aware of the talk around Connor Hellebuyck<\/a>\u2019s future with the Winnipeg Jets<\/a> that has loomed over the team\u2019s off-season.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old blueliner is hopeful, though, that Hellebuyck will remain with the Jets this season and help the team recover from an extremely disappointing 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t believe everything you might see or hear out there,\u201d Morrissey told Murat Ates of The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cAt the end of the day, I hope Helle is back playing for us. He\u2019s the best goalie in the world. But what happens, doesn\u2019t happen, whatever, that\u2019s with him and his agent and the organization. It\u2019s something that\u2019s part of the game and part of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger reported in June that Hellebuyck wouldn\u2019t mind a change of scenery<\/a> and general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff did little to quiet the chatter as he declined to confirm whether the star netminder had requested a trade.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now deep into the off-season, the noise around a potential deal has quieted and Hellebuyck, who took home the Hart, Vezina and William M. Jennings trophies in 2025, will be crucial to Winnipeg\u2019s chances of bouncing back this season.<\/p>\n

The Jets won the Presidents\u2019 Trophy in 2025 becoming just the fifth team in NHL history to miss the playoffs in the following year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a year removed from being the best team in the league,\u201d Morrissey said. \u201cHaving some issues last season with injuries and whatnot, it seemed that a lot of things that could go wrong did go wrong. Now, that\u2019s not an excuse. You need to find solutions and battle through those things, and unfortunately we couldn\u2019t do it well enough. But I do feel personally confident in the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we have a chance to get back to where we were a year prior \u2014 back to competing with the league\u2019s best, back to having a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup,\u201d Morrissey added. \u201cAs a player, I think that\u2019s all you can really ask for: to be on a team with a group of guys who are driven and can compete for a Stanley Cup. I believe in our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jets are coming off of a relatively quiet off-season, having added defenceman Mario Ferraro<\/a> and goaltender Stuart Skinner<\/a> in their most significant moves. <\/p>\n

The addition Skinner on July 1 raised further questions on Hellebuyck\u2019s future, but could also allow the star to see a few less starts this season to stay fresh deep into the campaign.<\/p>\n

Hellebuyck appeared in 57 games last season, his lowest total since the 2020-21 season, but also started five games for Team USA at the Olympics en route to winning gold.<\/p>\n

With the Jets, Hellebuyck posted the worst save percentage of his career at .895 \u2013 the first time he\u2019s fallen below .900 – in 2025-26, to go along with a 2.86 goals-against average and a 23-23-11 record. <\/p>\n

The 33-year-old signed a contract extension in October 2023 with an annual cap hit of $8.5 million through the 2020-31 season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Josh Morrissey is well aware of the talk around Connor Hellebuyck\u2019s future with the Winnipeg Jets that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[147,34815,53597,84,4004],"class_list":["post-166695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-apple-news","tag-connor-hellebuyck-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8476945","tag-josh-morrissey-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8477504","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-jets-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-52"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}