MacKenzie Blackwood may have quietly complicated any possible Connor Hellebuyck chase by the Colorado Avalanche.
That’s the thread running through the latest speculation around Winnipeg’s top goalie, and it started with a line from Elliotte Friedman on the newest 32 Thoughts Podcast. Friedman said, "I’ve heard there’s at least one other goalie that, either the Jets looked at or were offered to them, who now has Winnipeg on his no-trade as of July 1.”
He didn’t name the goalie, but the comment opens the door to a pretty specific line of thinking: if Colorado had talked with Winnipeg about Hellebuyck, and Blackwood’s name came up as part of the larger conversation, the deal may have unraveled before it ever got close.
The source of the hesitation, at least in this theory, would be Blackwood deciding to place Winnipeg on his no-trade list. The NHL doesn’t reveal the teams on those lists, only how many teams are included, and Blackwood’s list is known to contain six teams.
Those lists are submitted every July 1, and typically that’s routine work handled by an agent. This summer, though, the idea is that Blackwood may have made sure Winnipeg was included after whatever trade chatter surfaced.
The Avalanche angle gets more interesting because the Jets reportedly turned down a huge offer from the Florida Panthers for Hellebuyck. If that was the bar for the three-time Vezina winner, Colorado would have had a tough time getting there.
Blackwood, though, may not have been the only goalie who complicated Winnipeg’s search.
The Buffalo Sabres were also believed to be in the mix. According to the reporting, Buffalo had the assets to make a move at the draft and was willing to send the fourth-overall pick in this year’s draft, but wanted the eighth pick back in return. Winnipeg passed on the idea of swapping those picks and preferred to keep both top-10 selections.
Then came the bigger issue: the Sabres were also offering Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Luukkonen reportedly had Winnipeg on his no-trade list as well, and that shut things down. It’s not clear whether Winnipeg was already on that list before the draft talks or whether it was added after the deal discussion started.
There’s also another goalie name floating around the Hellebuyck rumor mill: Karel Vejmelka of the Utah Mammoth. Utah was said to have thrown its hat into the ring at one point, but nothing ever really came of it.
For now, the Blackwood and Vejmelka pieces remain speculation. The Luukkonen part, though, has been reported by multiple sources, including Friedman. And if Blackwood really was the goalie Friedman was referring to, then Winnipeg may have run into more resistance than anyone realized while exploring Hellebuyck options.
That’s where the Avalanche speculation circles back in. If Colorado is truly trying to get in on Hellebuyck, Winnipeg might wind up looking beyond established goalies and toward a prospect. In that scenario, Ilya Nabokov could become a name to watch.
Nothing is confirmed yet, and that’s the line to keep in mind here. For now, it’s all chatter, theories, and a few clues that suggest the Jets’ goalie market may have been messier than it first appeared.
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