Released an hour ago, though I probably should have proof read it a little more for those grammatical errors. Although when this post comes along...
Damn is that one hell of a step-by-step "how and why" as to Hellebuyck getting a 5x$5.8m. In my fourth post I also look at Holtby's contract as to how the Jets might get Hellebuyck's down from a predicted $6.25m to $6m, but I was all in honesty playing with mental math. Having the extra RFA year certainly does play a factor, though I more thought of the lack of an actual NHL goaltender routine over the past three years might be used as an argument (i.e., year 1: started strong when Pavelec was hurt and got ridden into the ground; year 2: rotated game-by-game with Hutchinson until he sorta took control, but not really because Hutchinson turned out to be worse anyway so again got ridden hard; year 3: forced into starting right away and was relied upon after a lacklustre season before - and put up Vezina numbers). From a glance, that looks pretty inconsistent.
Also, just how much of this is Hellebuyck versus the team playing better defensively?:
He did see significantly less shots from in front of his net... so maybe I'll look at the (the somewhat arbitrarily binned metric) numbers here:
Hmm... Hellebuyck faced about two less shots on net per game, but rates stayed roughly the same with increased amount of time and games at 5v5... perhaps...
Ahh, a bit more sense. 10 less goals against on the penalty kill. That's good in itself already for a couple of extra wins here and there. Was that a product of Hellebuyck or an improved penalty kill? I'm leaning a little more towards column A, to be honest. "Shots from the outside" may have a bit of a point though, but maybe that's better rebound control in front of the net too by the defence?
Maybe. I don't really have an answer here. Sometimes, a goalie is as good as their team. Sometimes a team is as good as their goalie. It can even change game to game. That's a whole lot of nothing, but it's certainly a lot of the evaluating that will go on when determining what dollar figure the Jets get to and whether or not Hellebuyck and his agent agrees with that.