The Avalanche are already built like a contender that never stops coming at you. Nathan MacKinnon.
Cale Makar. Martin Necas.
Devon Toews. A roster packed with high-end talent and very few soft spots.
The one area that still leaves room for debate is in goal, which is why a recent Connor Hellebuyck rumor turned so many heads.
Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman said on his 32 Thoughts podcast that a couple of teams told him they wondered whether Colorado had taken a shot at Hellebuyck. He stressed that it was speculation from rival executives, not a confirmed chase, and he said he couldn’t see how a deal would come together or what the Avalanche would even have to offer.
“By the way, I had a couple of teams say to me they wondered if Colorado took a shot at Connor Hellebuyck,” Friedman said. “I don’t know how that could work, I don’t know what they would offer, and I’m not sure that Winnipeg would want to see that. But there were a couple of teams that were like, they kind of suspected that the Avalanche considered it.”
On the surface, the fit is easy to understand. Hellebuyck is widely viewed as the best goaltender alive, and Colorado would love to solve the one question that still hangs over an otherwise loaded lineup.
But the cap math makes this a monster of a problem. Hellebuyck is under contract through 2031 at an $8.5 million cap hit, while MacKinnon is already taking up $12.6 million and Necas sits at $11.5 million.
Makar’s next deal could climb to around $20 million per season, which only makes the squeeze worse.
To make Hellebuyck fit, Colorado would have to move multiple established players just to open enough room. That kind of subtraction would cut into the depth that makes the Avalanche so dangerous in the first place. If Winnipeg were willing to take back MacKenzie Blackwood, that would help, but it still wouldn’t be close to enough on its own.
There’s also the division issue. Colorado and Winnipeg both play in the Central, and the Jets would be dealing a franchise goalie to a team they could see over and over again, including in the playoffs. That’s not the sort of move teams usually make unless the return is overwhelming.
Even so, the fact that Colorado’s name came up at all suggests the Avalanche were at least the kind of team people around the league could imagine making a bold swing. A front office doesn’t get attached to a Vezina-caliber name for no reason. It happens when everyone knows a team is still searching for that final piece.
The real Hellebuyck talks were happening elsewhere. Buffalo reportedly put forward a package built around the 4th overall pick, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and a player believed to be Jack Quinn, and Winnipeg still passed.
Carolina was involved too. Those were actual trade discussions.
Colorado’s place in the story was more rumor than negotiation.
For now, Hellebuyck remains in Winnipeg. The Jets also added veteran goaltender Stuart Skinner in free agency, which can be read as insurance or leverage. And the idea of Hellebuyck landing in Colorado stays in the same bucket as a lot of summer hockey chatter: intriguing, hard to ignore, and still a long way from real.
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