It was a noisy summer around Team USA, and the ripple effects are still being felt across the NHL. Connor Hellebuyck and Dylan Larkin both found themselves at the center of it, but the two situations are playing out in very different ways as training camps get underway.
In Winnipeg, Hellebuyck’s situation is the more advanced of the two. Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff addressed the media on Wednesday after the club suspended the goaltender for not reporting to camp, and he confirmed that Hellebuyck did, in fact, ask for a trade after the season. Cheveldayoff said the request was kept private at Hellebuyck’s request.
“There’s probably a lot of why’s, and unfortunately, the situation is what it is,” Cheveldayoff told the media on Wednesday. “The choices he (Hellebuyck) makes are the choices he makes.”
The Jets’ stance has been clear: they are not moving him just to move him. They want a deal that makes sense for Winnipeg, not simply one that gets the situation off the front page. Cheveldayoff said the team has been working on it for a while and is trying to reach a resolution that works for both sides.
“We’ve been dealing with it for a period of time now. Just looking to find a resolution that works for both sides, certainly for the players and the fans of the Winnipeg Jets,” Cheveldayoff added.
And despite outside reports suggesting the offers weren’t strong, Cheveldayoff pushed back on that framing. The issue, from his point of view, is that moving a goalie of Hellebuyck’s caliber should bring back a return that matches the value of the player.
“I think you know what we have to understand here is that we’re talking about moving Connor Hellebuyck,” Cheveldayoff said on Thursday. “We’re talking about moving a player that’s been very, very important to this franchise and is a very good player in the National Hockey League.
And we expect, I guess, that a level of return would be commensurate to that. We’re still trying to win.
Period.”
For now, there’s no sign a deal is close. The Jets are holding firm, and all options remain open. Cheveldayoff even put it plainly: “He is family until he is not.”
Larkin’s situation in Detroit is less public, but no less real. A day after Shawn Horcoff met with the media as the new interim GM of the Red Wings, the former captain spoke and made it clear he was not interested in laying everything out for the public.
“I understand that there’s answers that fans and people that care about this organization around the world want to know, but I’m really not ready to go there,” Larkin told the media. “And it’s maybe something that I may never be, you know?
And it wasn’t easy to get to that decision. It was very hard.
It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. I don’t take what I did lightly, and I got to that point, and I’m not quite ready to talk about it.”
Larkin said he asked for a trade at the end of the season and was unhappy when that request became public. He also said he had reached the point where he knew it was time and best for him. Even with the front office change in Detroit, he did not say whether the request still stands.
He also kept quiet about any ongoing talks with the Red Wings, just as Horcoff had the day before. Those discussions, Larkin made clear, are staying private for now.
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