{"id":475328,"date":"2026-02-27T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/475328\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T16:00:20","slug":"winnipeg-jets-should-drastically-reduce-connor-hellebuycks-workload-for-remainder-of-season-the-hockey-writers-winnipeg-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/475328\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Jets Should Drastically Reduce Connor Hellebuyck’s Workload for Remainder of Season – The Hockey Writers – Winnipeg Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is little point in the Winnipeg Jets overworking goaltender Connor Hellebuyck for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

Going forward through the last 25 games of the campaign, his workload should be drastically reduced.<\/p>\n

With Playoffs Unlikely, It\u2019s Time For Young Goalies to Get NHL Starts<\/p>\n

Entering play Feb. 27, Hellebuyck has made 36 starts for the Jets this season, but also made five at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy for a total of 41. <\/p>\n

\"ConnorConnor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets (Amy Irvin<\/a> \/ The Hockey Writers)<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t need to and shouldn\u2019t challenge for 60-plus starts as he usually does. While the organization is still saying they\u2019re committed making a push for the playoffs \u2014 let\u2019s be honest, they\u2019re not going to say \u201cwe\u2019re tanking\u201d \u2014 the reality is it\u2019s a long shot. While the Jets captured a 3-2 overtime win over the Vancouver Canucks in their first game out of the Olympic break, they are still nine points out of the second western conference wild-card spot and only have a 9.3 per cent chance of making the postseason, as per MoneyPuck.<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, the Jets should let Hellebuyck take it relatively easy in favour of giving Domenic DiVincentiis and Thomas Milic some opportunities to take the NHL crease.<\/p>\n

The young netminders have been steady in tandem for the Manitoba Moose in the American Hockey League (AHL) this season and deserve NHL opportunity. DiVincentiis has a 2.77 goals against average (GAA), .906 save percentage (SV%), and two shutouts in 25 appearances while Milic, who was named to the AHL All-Star Classic<\/a>, has a 2.37 GAA, .910 SV%, and two shutouts in 22 appearances.<\/p>\n

Milic made his NHL debut in late November while Hellebuyck was out<\/a> after an arthroscopic knee surgery, while DiVincentiis has backed Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie up but not seen any game action.<\/p>\n

\"ThomasThomas Milic made his NHL debut on Nov. 28, 2025. (Terrence Lee-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Hellebuyck was outstanding throughout the Olympics for the United States and was the gold-medal game hero<\/a> without a doubt, but it\u2019s not like he\u2019s played anywhere close to Vezina Trophy calibre this season in general. His 2.79 GAA and .900 SV% are barely better than Comrie\u2019s 3.01 GAA and .893 SV%, and he also has only three more wins than his backup in 16 more starts. Even if the Jets truly believe they can make the playoffs, starting someone else may not hurt their chance to win much.<\/p>\n

DiVincentiis & Milic Have Opportunities to \u201cCross the Hall\u201d<\/p>\n

The most logical time to give DiVincentiis and Milic some starts is while the Jets and Moose are home simultaneously so they can literally just walk across the hall (one of many benefits of having your AHL affiliate in the same city as your NHL team). The Moose have two home games on March 8 and 10 that overlap with the Jets\u2019 eight-game homestand from March 3 through 17, and the Jets have two home games on April 6 and 11 that overlap with a five-game Moose homestand from April 3 through 12.<\/p>\n

\"DomenicDomenic DiVincentiis, Manitoba Moose (Jonathan Kozub \/ Manitoba Moose)<\/p>\n

The appropriate workload going forward would be something like Hellebuyck making 10 starts or fewer with DiVincentiis and Milic making three to four each and Comrie making the rest if he\u2019s not among the players dealt at next Friday\u2019s 2026 Trade Deadline.<\/p>\n

Related: 7 Players the Winnipeg Jets Should Move On From<\/a><\/p>\n

While taking DiVincentiis or Milic away from the Moose could potentially hurt their chances of locking down third place in the Central Division \u2014 where they currently sit \u2014 they have a capable third goaltender in Isaac Poulter to back up whoever isn\u2019t called up. (Finishing in the top three is important because those teams get a bye past the Calder Cup Playoff\u2019s best-of-three first round between the Central\u2019s #4 and #5 seeds).<\/p>\n

The reality is, either DiVincentiis or Milic could be the Jets\u2019 full-time backup next season (or as soon as the end of next week if Comrie is indeed traded). Them getting meaningful NHL time and being more prepared for next season, while keeping Hellebuyck fresher for the same, would be silver linings to a very disappointing 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is little point in the Winnipeg Jets overworking goaltender Connor Hellebuyck for the rest of the season.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[23057,3189,1171,32027,1825,5,78,4,30804,77,18,5288],"class_list":["post-475328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg-jets","tag-2026-nhl-trade-deadline","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-connor-hellebuyck","tag-domenic-divincentiis","tag-eric-comrie","tag-hockey","tag-jets","tag-nhl","tag-thomas-milic","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-jets","tag-winnipegjets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116143436434440398","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}