The story behind the mask designs

As shown by his Vezina Trophy winning campaign in 2023-24 and his 6-0 start this season, it is not easy to beat Connor Hellebuyck.

Something that has become easy for artist Steve Nash, is reading Hellebuyck’s mind when it comes to designing the paint job for his mask each season.

“I know pretty much the direction he wants to go, it’s always an outdoor kind of theme,” said Nash.

“He loves lots of white and keep it crisp so you can see it up in the third level. This year, that was his direction. He just wanted just like Winnipeg, Winterpeg, snow, mixed with the fishing and stuff.”

Although Nash has painted a lot of different designs over the years for Hellebuyck, he has a couple that stand out in his mind.

“This current one is my new favourite. It’s got lots of Stanley Cup steel on there, chrome,” said Nash.

“But yeah, I like the big Buff (Dustin Byfuglien) too. He’s like one of my favourite players. I loved watching him, he was amazing.”

Hellebuyck has rewritten the franchise record book for goalies during his time with the Jets. He leads franchise goalies in career games played (511), wins (281), shutouts (38), and saves (14,277). Hellebuyck also leads the franchise in single season wins (2017-18: 44), shutouts (2017-18 and 2019-20: 6), and saves (2021-22: 1,962). Yet with all the accolades, he has remained humble.

“He’s an awesome guy, awesome family guy. Great personality, we get along great, and I pretty much can tell all the time now what he wants even before he starts the conversation off. We get along well and it’s awesome working with the guy. The guy just keeps getting better and better, it’s unbelievable,” said Nash.

“He just texts me his ideas. I do a couple of sketches for him, he approves them, and he lets me do my stuff and usually it works out, knock on wood. So far it works.”

Nash, who has played hockey for over 30 years as a goaltender says he gets more enjoyment out of watching hockey and takes in as many Jets games as he can.

Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie have been reunited after a couple seasons apart when Comrie took a two-year contract from the Buffalo Sabres in the summer of 2022. The Edmonton native has also been reunited with Jets goaltender coach, Wade Flaherty. It’s the third time that Comrie has been a member of the Jets organization.

Comrie’s mask design comes from artist Jason Bartziokas, who has worked with Comrie going back to his days in the Western Hockey League.

“He is a dream client in the fact that I get artistic freedom. I’ll give him just an idea when we first start talking about a new mask and to him, it’s the best idea right off the hop,” said Bartziokas.

“I don’t even have to go up my sleeve and pull out the other idea. It’s like I’ll wait for the response and it’s always ‘That sounds great, that sounds amazing, let’s do that.’ It allows the creative process to go a little smoother when you have somebody like him.”

Like Nash, Bartziokas was a goalie, and he uses that to help him brainstorm ideas for his clients.

“I ask myself ‘Would I wear this mask?’ When you have creative freedom, you are living vicariously through him. It’s going to be our mask and not his mask,” laughed Bartziokas.

“It’s good that way. Every goalie has those things that they want, those parameters, obviously there’s logos, colours and that’s no problem.”

This year’s primary mask played off the last time Comrie was in Winnipeg (the 2021-22 season).

“The last time we paid homage to Canadian aviation, this time the planes are more modern. I wanted to play off the logo this year and more special effects, more balance in the colours” said Bartziokas.

“This year both masks, I had the heritage and the primary at the same time. So, it was kind of having to think, juggling the two masks within a week and a half, two weeks.”

Bartziokas grew up down the road from Edmonton with the Oilers being his favourite team, but his second team was Winnipeg. His best friends family was from Winnipeg, and he fell in love with the Jets because of their goaltenders Bob Essensa and Stephane Beauregard and their gear.

“I kind of have this special place in my heart for the Jets. For the heritage mask, I was looking at all the stuff that had been done in the past,” said Bartziokas.

“I just got into the mindset, it needed to look like it came from that era, late 80’s, 90’s and just give it a modern touch. That was our play on the heritage mask.”

On October 20, Comrie debuted the heritage mask in a 6-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 29-year-old made 39 saves for the win. Bartziokas watched the game on tv and said seeing his mask, and Comrie play as well as he did, made it a special emotional night. Bartziokas watched the game with his eight-year-old daughter, Jayla.

“I took four years off from painting masks to focus on my oil paintings. I have a daughter, and she got to the point where a year and a half ago, she started playing hockey and so that passion came back and just the love of the game,” said Bartziokas.

“When Eric was playing, I got to share that experience of having a mask on tv. The onslaught of Pittsburgh in the first and he was able to hold them off and it was awesome. You hope they don’t pan the camera on him because of a goal, it’s because he stopped it. You get a bit of a rush, I got to share that with the girls, it was pretty amazing.”