Player Discussion: 2023 Vezina Finalist Connor Hellebuyck

[Imcanadianeh]

you're absolutely out to lunch on this

You’re going to tell me that you actually think Hellebuyck is good at playing the puck!?

Hellebuyck absolutely has bad rebound control, he doesn’t absorb shots well and let’s them land in front of him far enough away he can’t cover them, he also isn’t that great at redirecting shots into corners instead he often kicks them out closer to the slot. He been good at making the save off the rebound but if he was had better rebound control he wouldn’t need to make those saves.

from ~mid December till ~February Hellebuyck went 6-8-2 with a 0.897 save percentage and 3.42 goals against.

Hellebuyck has been a very boom or bust goalie, however for the last ~12 games he’s only had 3 bust games.

 

[Eyeseeing]

You’re going to tell me that you actually think Hellebuyck is good at playing the puck!?

Hellebuyck absolutely has bad rebound control, he doesn’t absorb shots well and let’s them land in front of him far enough away he can’t cover them, he also isn’t that great at redirecting shots into corners instead he often kicks them out closer to the slot. He been good at making the save off the rebound but if he was had better rebound control he wouldn’t need to make those saves.

from ~mid December till ~February Hellebuyck went 6-8-2 with a 0.897 save percentage and 3.42 goals against.

 

[ps241]

You’re going to tell me that you actually think Hellebuyck is good at playing the puck!?

Hellebuyck absolutely has bad rebound control, he doesn’t absorb shots well and let’s them land in front of him far enough away he can’t cover them, he also isn’t that great at redirecting shots into corners instead he often kicks them out closer to the slot. He been good at making the save off the rebound but if he was had better rebound control he wouldn’t need to make those saves.

from ~mid December till ~February Hellebuyck went 6-8-2 with a 0.897 save percentage and 3.42 goals against.

Hellebuyck has been a very boom or bust goalie, however for the last ~12 games he’s only had 3 bust games.

All goalies have flaws.


You can nitpick if you want but he is probably the best goalie in the NHL this season. Warts and all he is 100%, far and away our team MVP.

 

[Joe Hallenback]

I feel like goals saved above expected is kind of flawed with Hellebuyck this year because he seems to bleed rebounds, he’s making the saves but he wouldn’t need to make them if he absorbed shots better and deflected/redirected incoming shots better.

IMO opinion Hellebuyck is having a good year but far from Vezina quality.

hasn’t it been something like 7 games he has let the first shot on net in?

he has almost has many bad games and he has good games.

There is always one in a crowd

 

[Jet]

The only thing that concerned me in the back half of this season is how many goals Hellebuyck allowed in the first 5 shots of the game. I don't know if there are stats for that but I can't imagine Hellebuyck is anywhere but the bottom of this list.

Despite that, the Jets are amongst the top half of the league in GA and with our defense and that first goals allowed issue it really speaks to just how fantastic he has been this year.

 

[Adam da bomb]

Even tho Helly deserves Venzina won’t he demand less money if he loses it?

 

[larmex99]

Even tho Helly deserves Venzina won’t he demand less money if he loses it?

He is a lonngg way from his next contract. Not an issue.

 

[AlphaLackey]

Hellebuyck has been a very boom or bust goalie, however for the last ~12 games he’s only had 3 bust games.

All goalies are boom and bust goalies because there is an insane amount of variance at this position and ESPECIALLY in SV%, the still widely most used statistic.

 

[Eyeseeing]

It’s nice to have a goalie who is good more often than not.
After living through the Pavelec nightmare years it’s nice to have a goalie who in my opinion is Holtby quality.

 

[Adam da bomb]

It’s nice to have a goalie who is good more often than not.
After living through the Pavelec nightmare years it’s nice to have a goalie who in my opinion is Holtby quality.

I’d say Hellybuck is top 5 goalies right now. Him, Rask, TB’s goalie and two other guys.

 

[AlphaLackey]

It’s nice to have a goalie who is good more often than not.
After living through the Pavelec nightmare years it’s nice to have a goalie who in my opinion is Holtby quality.

Pavelec was so bad for so long that he was under a 2nd percentile performance. As in, pick 49 starting goalies at random and him, and odds were that Pavelec would be the worst of the bunch. This is like.. whatever the opposite of Generational Talent is.

Bucky may only be "merely" well above average, but he's done that for SO LONG that it's kind of the opposite. And frankly, with the nightmare of Pavelec, I'll take a guy I can "merely" count on as being upper tertile for 60+ games for the rest of his career.

 

[AlphaLackey]

i.e. contrary to manufactured narratives utterly devoid of evidence, Bucky is no more "streaky" than other goalies, even better ones.

 

[Adam da bomb]

Pavelec was so bad for so long that he was under a 2nd percentile performance. As in, pick 49 starting goalies at random and him, and odds were that Pavelec would be the worst of the bunch. This is like.. whatever the opposite of Generational Talent is.

Bucky may only be "merely" well above average, but he's done that for SO LONG that it's kind of the opposite. And frankly, with the nightmare of Pavelec, I'll take a guy I can "merely" count on as being upper tertile for 60+ games for the rest of his career.

We need to get over the Pav years and stop comparing or bringing him up. Those dark days are over.

 

[Jets 31]

He certainly has really turned the season around in his last 10-15 games and has been lights out.

doesn’t change that his rebound control is still a huge problem and I’d prefer he never tried to handle the puck again.

he still has had plenty of really bad games this season and a horrible stretch of 12-15 games earlier in the season.

and like I said earlier because of his horrible rebound control he is facing many more high danger shots against then he needs to because of it.

The only reason this team was sniffing playoffs was because of Helly , the amount of high danger shots he's seen this season has been unreal . Helly definitely should play the puck less but that's his only real weakness . Controlling rebounds is not as easy as you seem to think especially from high danger shooting areas .

 

[AlphaLackey]

We need to get over the Pav years and stop comparing or bringing him up. Those dark days are over.

As long as there are people who forget just how horrible that man was, I feel it's important for people to keep the spoken narrative alive. I got friends in Colorado who still remember Hardy Astrom, as well they should.

If Buffalo can keep remembering Taro...

 

[rubikscube]

The Athletic's NHL awards for the 2019-20 season

behind a paywall, but the best media in the business has Helle leading vezina with 92.68% of the vote

 

[ps241]

The Athletic's NHL awards for the 2019-20 season

behind a paywall, but the best media in the business has Helle leading vezina with 92.68% of the vote

Just came to mention this. It was 41 of the Athletic hockey writers who voted on all the major awards and it would seem that Helle got 38 of the 41 first place votes and was by far the most dominant winner of any of the awards these guys voted on. I have sent this out to a couple of my mouth breathing Helle hating friends just to kind of spike the "you are wrong" football in their faces. Since they are probably unable to read I might need to follow up with phone calls.

 

[rubikscube]

Just came to mention this. It was 41 of the Athletic hockey writers who voted on all the major awards and it would seem that Helle got 38 of the 41 first place votes and was by far the most dominant winner of any of the awards these guys voted on. I have sent this out to a couple of my mouth breathing Helle hating friends just to kind of spike the "you are wrong" football in their faces. Since they are probably unable to read I might need to follow up with phone calls.

There's a couple that'll see it in this thread too. Not gonna name any names

 

[10Ducky10]

"No one dominated the voting more than Connor Hellebuyck, who also received two votes from our panel for the Hart Trophy. The Jets were fighting for a playoff spot behind Hellebuyck, who led the league in shots against and saves in 58 games (also tied for the league lead)."
Rask 1 vote
Vasi 1 vote
Bishop 1 vote
Helle 38 votes

 

[Teemusalami204]

My opinion on helly is that he is amazing every 2nd year so far. If he can sting 2 seasons in a row of vezina goaltending I will call him the best.

Right now he hasn't been consistent enough to say he is the best.

 

[MardyBum]

My opinion on helly is that he is amazing every 2nd year so far. If he can sting 2 seasons in a row of vezina goaltending I will call him the best.

Right now he hasn't been consistent enough to say he is the best.

He's been the best this year, which is all that matters for the Vezina.

 

[AlphaLackey]

He's been the best this year, which is all that matters for the Vezina.

I mean, when he's nearly unanimously hailed as "the best goalie of the year", you gotta keep raising the bar if you wanna keep treating him like he's actually bad. "He's not the best goalie this year unless he's also the best goalie next year" is the next logical stop on this crazy train.

 

[Adam da bomb]

I mean, when he's nearly unanimously hailed as "the best goalie of the year", you gotta keep raising the bar if you wanna keep treating him like he's actually bad. "He's not the best goalie this year unless he's also the best goalie next year" is the next logical stop on this crazy train.

It was the only one not close.

 

[10Ducky10]

It was the only one not close.

GM of the year and Norris weren't very close either but Helle's was almost unanimous.

 

[Jets4Life]

If the Jets did not have the NHL's best goalie bailing us out night after night, we would be the worst team in the league. Shots after 2 periods: 35-17 Oilers.

What a dumpster fire the blueline is.