Is Connor Hellebuyck tracking to be a HHOFer?

[Mad Dog Tannen]

An Art Ross would help immensely

He’ll start training with Brodeur on goal scoring in the off season. It is a gap in his game.

 

[Weztex]

If the Jets win and he gets the Smythe, then maybe. A couple Vezinas and a Smythe would merit consideration, even if he has to wait a few years more.

Needs to win/stock pile a couple more vezinas. But I'd say he's probably tracking to be so, he's like the last elite workhorse goalie but has no real playoff success to show for it.

Holy high bar guys!

Among the 10 goalies inducted since 2000, one has a couple a Vezina and a Smythe (Roy), and three have 3 Vezinas (Roy, Hasek, Brodeur) all of which are top-6 goalies of all-time.

2 Vezinas : Belfour
1 Vezina : Fuhr, Vachon*, Barrasso, Lundqvist
0 Vezina : Luongo, Vernon

Awards are pretty cool, but it's not like you either win an award or are worthless. If he keeps it up Hellebuyck will be voted a top-5 goalie for the 5th time this season. That's beginning to look like a pretty impressive resume, Vezina or not.

 

[abo9]

What’s with all these replies he needs a “few more Vezinas” and some people add AND a cup AND a Smythe? How many goalies of the last couple decades even have more than 1 Vézina OR a Smythe? You’d have to think a goalie Smythe is a lock for HHOF. As well as a single Vézina while being a top tier goalie in this league… for goodness sakes…

Not saying HE IS a lock, but come on… a COUPLE Vezinas, AND a Smythe and what else?

To be fair, OP asks "what does he need" to be a lock at a hhof career. His current trajectory looks borderline - faborable, but certainly not a lock. Add anCup/CS and/or Vezina though? He'd be tough to keep out.

The difficult thing with goalies is always consistency though.

At around the same age, Braden Holtby had a vezinaa win and placed 4th and 2nd in consecutive years, placing as high as 4th in the Hart race. He also was coming off a Cup win and had bonkers stats in the playoffs.

Hellebuyck has a Vezina win, 2nd, 3rd and 4th placements. His playoff resume currently pales in comparison to Holtby's. But Holtby fell off a cliff. So, imo, if Holtby isnt HHOF material, Hellebuyck isnt right now, and needs to show continued excellence for another 5 years, or have some heroics.

 

[MXD]

Didn’t seem to hurt Curtis Joseph.

No meaningful international play.

No cup. Heck no Stanley cup finals.

Hellebuyck and Joseph’s careers are tracking quite similarly. Both started at 22. Except 8 years in Connor has more playoff games and better playoff stats.

He’s already 61st in wins all time and likely has 10 years ahead of him.

Unless he is injured or his game falls off dramatically in the next 5 years he will be a first ballot entrant regardless of playoffs or international play.

Errhhmmm....

 

[snag]

Didn’t seem to hurt Curtis Joseph.

No meaningful international play.

No cup. Heck no Stanley cup finals.

Hellebuyck and Joseph’s careers are tracking quite similarly. Both started at 22. Except 8 years in Connor has more playoff games and better playoff stats.

He’s already 61st in wins all time and likely has 10 years ahead of him.

Unless he is injured or his game falls off dramatically in the next 5 years he will be a first ballot entrant regardless of playoffs or international play.

It might not have hurt him scoring a Playboy Playmate for a wife....but he ain't in the Hall.

 

[Mad Dog Tannen]

Errhhmmm....

It might not have hurt him scoring a Playboy Playmate for a wife....but he ain't in the Hall.

Yikes, brain fart on my end.

I purposely used cute because, for whatever reason I thought he was recently voted in. Lol. I must have read something last summer that put a bug in my ear.

Thanks for The heads up. And yeah at least he’s in the smokeshow wife HOF.

Errhhmmm....

It might not have hurt him scoring a Playboy Playmate for a wife....but he ain't in the Hall.

Yikes, brain fart on my end.

I purposely used cute because, for whatever reason I thought he was recently voted in. Lol. I must have read something last summer that put a bug in my ear.

Thanks for The heads up. And yeah at least he’s in the smokeshow wife HOF.

 

[bobholly39]

Maybe? Really solid prime so far, but goalies are unpredictable. He still needs a lot of solid years to make it.

He's behind Brayden Holtby age to age career-wise. And Holtby is definitely not a hall of famer. Holtby kind of fell off a cliff unexpectedly around age ~30 or so. So it's hard to say with goalies.

 

[NVious]

If he wins a Lady Byng, Norris, Calder, 10 Vezinas, 10 cups, Balon D'or, green jacket, president of USA, unites the Korean peninsula, he has a 1.5% chance.

 

[MXD]

To be fair, OP asks "what does he need" to be a lock at a hhof career. His current trajectory looks borderline - faborable, but certainly not a lock. Add anCup/CS and/or Vezina though? He'd be tough to keep out.

The difficult thing with goalies is always consistency though.

At around the same age, Braden Holtby had a vezinaa win and placed 4th and 2nd in consecutive years, placing as high as 4th in the Hart race. He also was coming off a Cup win and had bonkers stats in the playoffs.

Hellebuyck has a Vezina win, 2nd, 3rd and 4th placements. His playoff resume currently pales in comparison to Holtby's. But Holtby fell off a cliff. So, imo, if Holtby isnt HHOF material, Hellebuyck isnt right now, and needs to show continued excellence for another 5 years, or have some heroics.

This is where a Gold Medal on Best-on-Best Olympics in 2022 while playing great, or something like that, would've tremendously helped him.

 

[Voight]

He still needs 5 more solid years but is without doubt on track.

I don’t think there’s another current goalie close.

Shesterkin and sirloin are great but haven’t built up the resume yet. Same with Ullmark and Swayman.

He’s absolutely lights out.

If you’re not familiar with him or don’t watch him - he’s pretty much void of highlight real saves because his whole approach is about being set up to not have to make desperation saves. So he’s rarely on the nightly highlights. Just consistent and efficient goaltending.

Kinda crazy to watch to be honest.

Vasilevskiy....

 

[Mrb1p]

Helle is in the mold of Rask Rinne, but theres no Price ahead of him. I think its tough to get in the Hall if youre a lump goaltender.

Can anyone make an actual compelling case that hes above Sorokin, Shesty, Vasilevskyi, Saros, Gibson and Oettinger?

I think Sorokin is the best goaltender in the league, personally and Hellebuyck is probably second... should that get you in the Hall? Is he tracking to be the best in the world, soon?

 

[Channelcat]

Any kind of championship would probably seal it. Jets would have been cellar dwellers most seasons without him, sorta like Kiprusoff in Calgary.

 

[Bobby9]

Hall of very good

 

[GeeoffBrown]

Probably on the low-end for netminders unless something crazy that won't happen actually happens. What really hurts him is not playing any meaningful internationnal hockey.

Neither does anyone else from his era

 

[Romang67]

He's probably the Vezina favorite so far this year, and if he wins another Vezina I think he's in. The list of goalies with 2 Vezina trophies and 4 top 3 finishes is vanishingly short.

 

[MXD]

Neither does anyone else from his era

Well, the difference being, some of the other candidates don't necessarily need this internationnal experience, because they have the playoff success or at least a definining playoff run to fall back on.

But I do agree that you can't really leave him out with a second Vezina.

 

[StumpyTown]

Oh god. He’s assumed to be. Sorry - he was already amazing before Connor joined the league.

Vasi started in 2014-15: Has played 446 games.
Helle started in 2015-16: Has played 476 games.

Vasi has definitely has more exposure due to Tampa having deep playoff runs, but I think a lot of people will be surprised at how much Helle plays consistently. Something that most other starters cannot do for 60+ games a season. (Not saying Vasi isn't consistent, just that their resumes are a lot closer than you may think they are).

Just as a side note, Vasi has had an immensely better team in front of him than Helle with the exception of maybe 2 seasons. In that time their save percentages are virtually identical (.918 to .917) and Helle actually has one more shutout than Vasi at this point.

The argument can definitely be made that Helle is a better goaltender than Vasi.

 

[MXD]

Vasi started in 2014-15: Has played 446 games.
Helle started in 2015-16: Has played 476 games.

Vasi has definitely has more exposure due to Tampa having deep playoff runs, but I think a lot of people will be surprised at how much Helle plays consistently. Something that most other starters cannot do for 60+ games a season. (Not saying Vasi isn't consistent, just that their resumes are a lot closer than you may think they are).

Just as a side note, Vasi has had an immensely better team in front of him than Helle with the exception of maybe 2 seasons. In that time their save percentages are virtually identical (.918 to .917) and Helle actually has one more shutout than Vasi at this point.

The argument can definitely be made that Helle is a better goaltender than Vasi.

I absolutely don't disagree with your post, but "Who is the best player" and "Who is the best HHOF candidate" are two different questions, and while there's definitely a good case that Hellebuyck has been the better player so far, there's absolutely no doubt as to whom is the better HHOF candidate at this juncture.

 

[StumpyTown]

I absolutely don't disagree with your post, but "Who is the best player" and "Who is the best HHOF candidate" are two different questions, and while there's definitely a good case that Hellebuyck has been the better player so far, there's absolutely no doubt as to whom is the better HHOF candidate at this juncture.

You're right. I actually wasn't even thinking HHOF when I posted that. I was more reacting to the "Sorry - he was already amazing before Connor joined the league" comment that was certainly not based on statistics.

 

[TS Quint]

Skaters don't need Cups or to be a key piece in an international tournament. 1k regular season points and you're pretty much guaranteed to be a HOFer. Why do goalies need these things.

Hellebuyck has been an elite goaltender for the vast majority of his career. He should get in.

 

[Yukon Joe]

I think any one of:

-a Stanley Cup
-a second Vezina
-significant success as team USA goalie (i.e. Olympic gold or a World Cup win)

would probably seal it for Helley. And note I said "any one of", not all three.

Working against him of course is the fact he plays for Winnipeg, and his "big, boring" style, but of course statistically he's been stellar the last number of years. He's on the right track.

 

[MXD]

Skaters don't need Cups or to be a key piece in an international tournament. 1k regular season points and you're pretty much guaranteed to be a HOFer. Why do goalies need these things.

Hellebuyck has been an elite goaltender for the vast majority of his career. He should get in.

I don't even disagree with that on substance, but he does need to add games at a decent level.

On top of my head, only one post-expansion netminder with less than 600 GP (Ken Dryden), and only two others made it with less than 700 GP (Bernard Parent and Billy Smith). The first had a MUCH better resume than Hellebuyck, the other two backstopped dynasties or semi-dynasties. More importantly, none of them played a single game past the 80ies, and the HHOF seems reluctant to admit netminders with low-ish game totals (Kiprusoff and Thomas comes to mind as borderline candidates with less than 700 games, and I suspect that's what will keep Tuukka Rask out too).

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Second vezina easily gets him in.

 

[MXD]

I think any one of:

-a Stanley Cup
-a second Vezina
-significant success as team USA goalie (i.e. Olympic gold or a World Cup win)

would probably seal it for Helley. And note I said "any one of", not all three.

Working against him of course is the fact he plays for Winnipeg, and his "big, boring" style, but of course statistically he's been stellar the last number of years. He's on the right track.

... And games played at a non-trainwreck level, though there's no way gets any of these while being a trainwreck.

 

[Yukon Joe]

I don't even disagree with that on substance, but he does need to add games at a decent level.

On top of my head, only one post-expansion netminder with less than 600 GP (Ken Dryden), and only two others made it with less than 700 GP (Bernard Parent and Billy Smith). The first had a MUCH better resume than Hellebuyck, the other two backstopped dynasties or semi-dynasties. More importantly, none of them played a single game past the 80ies, and the HHOF seems reluctant to admit netminders with low-ish game totals (Kiprusoff and Thomas comes to mind as borderline candidates with less than 700 games, and I suspect that's what will keep Tuukka Rask out too).

I mean I'll admit the HHoF does like to give points for longevity and consistency. Plays who shone bright but were forced to leave the game early typically don't make it (it takes guys like Bobby Orr or Eric Lindros to break that barrier).

But Helley is only 30, he should have many years of hockey left in him. He's at 476 games already, so 600 or 700 doesn't seem out of line with him averaging about 60 GP per year.