No. 1: Connor Hellebuyck
Are the Winnipeg Jets any good?
They have a ton of talent but it feels like they missed their window to win and there’s a lot of disfunction there.
Their coach left in the middle of the season last year, they stripped the “C” off thier captain’s chest and Mark Scheifele has been cryptic about leaving. On paper they have a lot of good pieces, but putting it all together seems unlikely.
With that being said, if the team wanted to rebuild, they could do a tear-down pretty quick with a Scheifele and Hellebuyck trade.
Trading a former Vezina Trophy winning goaltender is never an easy decision, but if the team wants to tank, that’s a good place to start.
At $6.16M for the next two years, Hellebuyck is as desireable as they come and if Toronto found a way to trade for him, they would be the Stanley Cup favorites.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs want to put themselves in the best position to succeed, they need to do something crazy and trade for someone of Hellebuyck’s stature.
I know this is unlikely, but if Winnipeg starts to fall in the standings, Toronto needs to make the call and try to make this happen.