Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff didn't rule out the possibility that star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck could remain with the team after going public with a trade demand. The Jets formally suspended Hellebuyck on Wednesday for failure to report to training camp. The 33-year-old goaltender requested a trade during exit interviews after last season, his 11th with the franchise. Hellebuyck won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP in 2025 and has won the Vezina Trophy three times.

"No doors are closed. He's a player that's under contract for five years. But at the end of the day, that's his choice," said Cheveldayoff at the opening of training camp on Thursday. Cheveldayoff said there's no timeline for trading his star goaltender, something the Jets have been trying to do for "a long period of time," including during last June's NHL draft. While he pushed back on a report this week that categorized the offers for Hellebuyck as "terrible," the Jets GM said, "There's been nothing that's allowed us to say, 'OK, this works for both teams.'"

Hellebuyck and his agent made their trade demand public with a statement in late August, saying "I have tried to handle the situation quietly and respectfully while giving the organization time to explore its options" in trading him. "When Connor requested being traded, we kept it quiet. That was partly on his request as well. And we tried to make that work and we've been trying to make that work ever since," Cheveldayoff said. There's been a wave of speculation about why Hellebuyck has asked out of Winnipeg just two seasons into a seven-year contract extension that he signed in Oct. 2023.

Cheveldayoff was asked about comments Hellebuyck made about the "blowback" his wife Andrea received after the goaltender led Team USA to Olympic gold in the 2026 Winter Olympics over Team Canada. Hellebuyck attended the State of the Union Address with all but five of his teammates, where President Donald Trump announced that the goalie would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "What they endured, they shouldn't have had to," said Cheveldayoff of the social media abuse. TSN reported this week that Hellebuyck will not waive his no-movement clause to join any of the six other Canadian NHL teams.