Connor Hellebuyck is not coming to the Colorado Avalanche.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news if anyone actually thought this “rumor” had any real traction. But there is one place where a Hellebuyck-to-Colorado blockbuster makes perfect sense: NHL 27, which launches worldwide on September 11 for PlayStation, Xbox, and other major platforms.
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There, you can take over as Avalanche GM and rig the entire league to your heart’s content. Turn off the salary cap. Let the CPU clean up the mess if you’re too chicken to live with the consequences of your own trades. Heck, you can even disable the human element altogether, sparing yourself those morale meetings that somehow make Franchise Mode feel longer than an actual NHL season—all powered by Frostbite, an engine built for first-person shooters like Battlefield, not sports games.
Back in the real world, though, the Avalanche have exactly zero reason to chase Hellebuyck.
Colorado’s goaltending situation is already set.
The Avalanche allowed just 197 goals during the regular season, the fewest in the NHL, earning Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood the William M. Jennings Trophy. It wasn’t a fluke, either. Colorado built one of the league’s deepest goaltending tandems, and both netminders rewarded that faith.
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Wedgewood, who spent most of his career as a backup before arriving in Colorado, was nothing short of sensational. He finished the season 31-6-6 with a 2.02 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage—numbers that led the league. Had he made more starts, there’s a legitimate argument he would’ve been in the Vezina Trophy conversation. Instead, Colorado’s rotation, along with the handful of games he missed because of injury, likely cost him that opportunity.
Blackwood, meanwhile, quietly proved why the Avalanche were comfortable handing him a significant role. He went 23-10-2 with a 2.51 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage, but those numbers don’t fully capture his value. During the regular season, he recorded back-to-back shutouts, becoming just the seventh goaltender in Colorado Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques franchise history to accomplish the feat, joining Patrick Roy, Darcy Kuemper, Pavel Francouz, David Aebischer, Clint Malarchuk, and Justus Annunen. He also came up big in the postseason, turning aside wave after wave of chances in Colorado’s Game 4 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final and giving the Avalanche every opportunity to extend the series.
That’s why the Hellebuyck speculation never made much sense.
Yes, Hellebuyck is arguably the best goaltender on the planet. If every general manager in the NHL could magically add him to their roster without giving up assets or worrying about the salary cap, they probably would.
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That’s not the world the Avalanche operate in.
Colorado is already paying Blackwood to be its starter while also having one of the league’s strongest goaltending tandems in Wedgewood. Any trade for Hellebuyck would almost certainly require a franchise-altering package of assets—think a player like Nathan MacKinnon or Martin Nečas—along with additional pieces, all while creating a massive salary-cap headache. In the end, the Avalanche would be sacrificing elite talent and financial flexibility to solve a problem they simply don’t have to begin with.
Rumors are part of the offseason. Fans love building fantasy rosters, and social media has never met a blockbuster trade it didn’t like.
But fantasy and reality are two different things.
If you want to see Connor Hellebuyck wearing burgundy and blue, fire up NHL 27 when it releases and make it happen yourself.
Just don’t expect it to happen in the real world.
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