New Jersey Devils goaltender Connor Hellebuyck says his family received threats during his tenure with the Winnipeg Jets – a risk that led the NHL veteran to push for his trade earlier this season.
The 33-year-old married father of two broke his silence on the situation with reporters on Tuesday in Winnipeg, where Hellebuyck has been scratched for the Devils’ game against the Jets. Coach Sheldon Keefe cited a home-and-home series against the Washington Capitals to explain why he wanted to rest Hellebuyck against Winnipeg, where he played for the last decade.
‘There was some moments and some things that happened to my family that for me crossed the line,’ Hellebuyck told reporters on Tuesday. ‘There were a few moments that I don’t want to see happen again. It’s more than just online death threats and I’m gonna ask you to respect my privacy and my family’s privacy, I won’t go deeper than that, but there’s more that made me and my family uncomfortable. On top of some uncertainty with my career, I felt a change of scenery was best.’
Hellebuyck stood by his word, refusing to reveal more details about the threats against his family.
He did say he wanted to play against his former team before Keefe opted to rest him in Winnipeg, where the netminder is now seen as a traitor among Jets fans. Many in Manitoba criticized Hellebuyck over difficult contract talks with the Jets and his subsequent trade demand.
‘I know from the outside looking in, you can say, ‘Oh, you did this wrong, you did that wrong,’ and maybe we did,’ Hellebuyck said about his departure from Winnipeg. ‘We’re human. We might make mistakes along the way, but the way we handled it is the way that we wanted to handle it, and how we’re going to continue to handle it is with privacy.
New Jersey Devils goaltender Connor Hellebuyck says his family received threats during his tenure with the Winnipeg Jets, which led the NHL veteran to push for a trade this year
Hellebuyck once said he would be a ‘Jet for life’ before demanding a trade out of Winnipeg
Hellebuyck is coming to the end of a wild 2026, that included his Olympic gold medal win
‘To the people that feel that I’ve been disloyal, well, there’s also a lot that I was not expecting to happen go on throughout this contract [when I signed it],’ he added later.
Hellebuyck then referred to an infamous statement he made after signing a seven-year, $60 million deal with Winnipeg in 2023, when he said he wanted to finish his career with the team.
‘And the day that I said I was a Jet for life, I meant it, but I also didn’t foresee the future that was going to happen,’ he said. ‘I’ve made my decision. I’ve made it clear, and I’ve sacrificed a lot to live by that decision. If that’s not enough for you, then I don’t know if I have any other answers for that.’
Hellebuyck is coming to the end of a wild 2026 that included his Olympic gold medal win with Team USA at the Milan-Cortina Games, a suspension for failing to report to Jets camp, and his trade to the Devils.
Thus far, Hellebuyck is a perfect 5-0 between the pipes for New Jersey, while holding opponents to fewer than two goals a game.
It was announced Sunday that he would be scratched for Tuesday’s game in Winnipeg. A team statement explained that playing Hellebuyck would ‘potentially give us a reduction in our expected win probability,’ which struck fans as an odd thing to say when the goaltender was coming off a 4-0 shutout against Toronto.
Keefe has since explained that the decision to rest Hellebuyck was made by Devils GM Sunny Mehta.
‘The competitor in me of course wants to get Connor out there,’ Keefe told reporters. ‘Let’s go, let’s get at it. But Sunny made the decision he didn’t want him to be a part of this.’
