WINNIPEG, Man. — On Monday night, Connor Hellebuyck sat down to a nice steak dinner with his girlfriend and his parents and then tuned in to watch the NHL awards show, just like any other hockey enthusiast.
The only difference for him was he was one of the stars of the show.
The Winnipeg Jets goaltender soon found himself talking to NHL legend Grant Fuhr over Zoom after being named the winner of the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender in 2019-20.
“It was just one of those moments where I couldn’t believe that it actually happened,” said Hellebuyck, whose professional career began with the American Hockey League's St. John's IceCaps in 2014.
“Everyone had a big smile on their face and they were all clapping. It was just a proud moment.”
A 2012 fifth-round pick of Winnipeg and product of the UMass-Lowell, Hellebuyck spent the entire 2014-15 season with St. John's, representing the IceCaps at the 2015 AHL All-Star Game. He posted a 2.50 goals-against average and .921 save percentage with St. John's and followed up his impressive rookie pro year with standout work for the United States at the 2015 world championships — his hometown is Commerce, Mich., not far from Detroit.
The next season, Hellebuyck was promoted to the Jets and since then has twice earned nods as an NHL all-star. But the biggest honour came this week as the 27-year-old became the first member of the Jets to win a major NHL award since 1993, when Teemu Selanne won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
Hellebuyck received 19 of a possible 30 first-place votes and 123 total points to beat out Tuukka Rask of the Boston Bruins and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning in voting conducted by the NHL’s general managers.
“This is a huge moment in my life,” Hellebuyck said.
Rask was second in the voting with 99 points (10 first-place votes) and Vasilevskiy received 31 points (one first-place vote).
It was Hellebuyck’s second time as a finalist for the honour, but his first time claiming the trophy.
He also finished sixth in voting for the Hart Trophy, which is awarded to the league’s most valuable player (this year it went to Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers). Hellebuyck received three first-place Hart Trophy votes and 283 points overall.
He is the first Jets player to ever win the Vezina Trophy. He finished second in the voting for the award in 2018.
“It’s very rewarding,” Hellebuyck said. “Almost a little bit of a sigh of relief because I was so close last time. I wanted it so badly. This year was such a mental grind, but also so fun. I would have liked for the playoffs to go a little better, but when I’m looking back on this year, I’m going to say that we did some great things.”
Hellebuyck, who was also named to the NHL’s first all-star team, had a tremendous regular season for the Jets in 2019-20, earning 31 wins and putting up 2.57 goals-against average, .922 save percentage and a league-leading six shutouts.
He was widely considered to be the primary reason why the Jets remained in playoff contention throughout the season, despite having to completely revamp their defence last summer.
He faced more shots (1,796) than any other goaltender in the NHL and a large portion of them were of the high-danger variety. He made more than 100 more saves (1,656) than his nearest competitor, Montreal’s Carey Price (1,595).
“I think my whole game has kind of sculptured itself,” Hellebuyck said when asked to pinpoint what brought him to this point. “I’ve tightened up a lot of things. I think the biggest and most important part is my mind and my mental game. It’s gotten a lot calmer. I only care about the things that I need to care about and I focus on the things I need to focus on, and I got some experience under the belt. I don’t let my mind and the roller coaster happen too big.”
Hellebuyck started out as a longshot and wound up becoming the best goaltender in the game. Who doesn’t love a story like that?
His agent, Steinbach’s Ray Petkau of Alpha Hockey, could barely find the words to describe how much this award means.
“Tonight was, without a doubt, a pretty big rewarding moment for …,” he said, before the words caught in his throat. Then after a pause he said “Geez, I guess that says it all.
“It was emotional. I’m not gonna lie about that. There were definitely some tears, but I’m proud of that.”
Hellebuyck helped the Jets get into the play-in round of the NHL’s summer tournament, but the team was bounced by the Calgary Flames in four games.
Still, it would seem that’s a setback he will put in the past, just as he has done many times in his career after mediocre performances.
“It’s so rewarding when you see your guys find success like that, especially someone like Connor who has worked so hard and really trusts the process,” Petkau said. “You hear it all the time — ‘trust the process’ — but he’s one of those guys that really buys into that.
“It’s very nice to see him win it. It’s so well deserved.”
Earlier in his career, Hellebuyck stated that his primary goals were to win a Vezina Trophy and win a Stanley Cup. Now he’s halfway there.
“It almost feels like getting a little bit of a monkey off my back after saying that,” he said. “Now I’m really am looking forward to the next one and the next (goal) is going to be glorious. That’s winning a Cup.
“It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be just me. There’s going to be a whole team in front of me that are all going to have to buy in, kind of like we did this year, and just battle and grind. We have the locker room for it, it’s only going to get better and I’m really excited for that grind.”
With files from The Telegram
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