Hellebuyck talks Mental Health Awareness Month in Q&A with NHL.com

In NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Sitting Down with …" we talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice.

This edition features Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck and his advocacy for Mental Health Awareness Month, which is May.

Connor Hellebuyck is home in Commerce, Michigan, coming off what he said was his finest season in the NHL.

He's a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, which is awarded annually to the best goalie in the NHL, after going 37-25-2 with a 2.49 goals-against average, .920 save percentage and four shutouts in 64 games for the Winnipeg Jets. He was tied with Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers for third in wins, and tied with Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins for fourth in save percentage among goalies to play at least 20 games.

The biggest reason he viewed his eighth NHL season as such a great one? He's in a better place. Hellebuyck joined NHL players and alumni for a social media campaign promoting Mental Health Awareness Month. He shared on Instagram

and the importance of talking to someone he trusts.

"Definitely my finest season because things are starting to really come together, in a standpoint of me really understanding myself, my body, my mental health," Hellebuyck told NHL.com. "A lot of things are starting to come together where I go into moments knowing what I need to do to get out of them. I have a lot of experience and a good team around me where I know how to get the help when I need it.

"I also love where my game is going. I love where it's heading. It's the fine details that I'm placing during the season that are now becoming second nature."

Hellebuyck, who turned 30 on May 19, won the Vezina in 2020 after going 31-21-5 with a 2.51 GAA, .922 save percentage and an NHL-high six shutouts in 56 starts. His breakout season was 2017-18, when he went 44-11-9 in 67 games (64 starts), finishing with six shutouts and an NHL-best .924 save percentage. He set an NHL career high in wins, tying Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the League lead, and was second in Vezina voting to Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators.

The other finalists for the Vezina this season are Linus Ullmark of the Bruins and Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders. The winner will be announced during the 2023 NHL Awards at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on June 26 (8 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, TVAS).

In an interview with NHL.com, Hellebuyck shared his thoughts about his mental health journey, kinship with Jets goaltending coach Wade Flaherty and co-authoring a children's book called "Bucky Beats the Blues/Is Something Wrong with Weasel?"

You have some hobbies that you enjoy. What are they and how have you found them therapeutic?

"If I need a moment and I'm feeling bogged down or stressed, I'll go fishing. It takes my mind off everything else that's going on and I'm only thinking about fishing. There's something so therapeutic about having one thought in your mind, when you're clear and just doing something you love. And now raising a family is just another one of those [things] that I thoroughly enjoy. When I'm doing it, I'm all in."

You have a history of being very busy, even if you did not lead the NHL in shots against and saves for the first time in four seasons. Do you thrive by getting more and more work physically and mentally?

"I think so. You get to a rhythm. You get the adrenaline flowing and at that point you have to manage yourself. That's why I think the organization's been so good to me. We have the right people in place and they manage my in-between game so well. I'm always prepared for the next day. I think definitely having a good flow helps with adrenaline and seeing reps and all that stuff. But if you mismanage it, it can work against you too. At this point in my career, we kind of have that really fine detail and know exactly what we need to do day to day for every scenario that gets thrown our way."

From the mental side, does playing goalie truly require a very unique approach?

"Absolutely. That's just because you're essentially alone on an island and no one truly understands what you're going through, other than maybe your goalie coach and a few other goalies around the League. In the NHL, you only have a couple of guys that you can talk to and who really understand what's going on and what you're seeing and things like that. It definitely takes a different mental approach having to go about a lot of things on your own. That's why some organizations can thrive over others because they have a better team in place for goaltenders to really talk and get their views out there."

How much has Wade Flaherty helped you?

"Wade is just so important to me in my career, not only on the ice but off the ice. He played the game for a long time. He knows exactly what I'm going through, raising a family and getting older, and he also learns the game with me, so I'm not alone in any aspect. You will have the same talks with the same people, where he knows exactly where my head's going. Not a lot of guys are out there like that, that care that much about improving with their goalie. It's more of I am going to teach you everything you know. 'Flats' has been both. He's taught me everything he knows and understands that every day changes, the game changes and things change around me, and he learns with me. It's just incredible to have someone in my corner that completely understands me and where I'm going."

In your Instagram post for Mental Health Awareness Month, you discussed what you do when you need a mental health day. What stood out was when you said you give it time and nothing is gone by a flick of the finger. Eventually you're back to feeling good and like yourself again. How do you speak about how important it is that it's never the end, that it's the start of a new chapter and breakthroughs of one's journey?

"That's most important part to understand what mental health is, a time factor. I know it can be hard. I experienced the same things. It's hard when you're coming to an end of a chapter waiting for the next page to be turned. What we need to realize is that time down there is what's creating such a good next page or a good next chapter or a good future story. If you know good things are coming, happening, you're not going to be too caught up in what's happening in the moment. That's where talking to people helps. Talk to someone and it gives you relief. It gives you stress relief, and that is so important to help yourself."

It's been said that you're not alone and nobody can go at it alone. How can you relate?

"What you said is really spot on. When you have someone that cares enough to listen, you know that you're not alone and that you have someone willing to grow with you or willing to offer experience to you. And not only that, you can always be that person for someone else. Sometimes working on your own mental health is helping other people work on their mental health. There's so much that goes into it and we're just clawing at the surface of this. I think we need to continue talks like this and growing it, and as a community we can learn from each other. I think that's what's so important about all this. No one's going to have it figured out. This is going be a group effort and the more we embrace the community, I think the more we can grow individually."

How far has mental health awareness come and can things continue to move forward without slowing down?

"I think we've come a long way. Now that we've kind of got a label on it and [are] starting to realize all the skills that go into it, I think we're identifying some key skills and some key parts of this and now that we're improving on those things, I think we're growing at a rapid pace. Every little bit you can do for yourself and share it with the world is very important, and that's going to be our next step."

You wrote a children's book to help kids with mental health and finding adults who can help when kids can't. How and why did writing this and mental health in general become so important to you?

"The book's been great and it's blown up even more than I thought it would, so it makes me very happy that I feel like I'm helping a little bit. When I first started hearing about mental health, it just hit home because I was going through that constantly since I've been 18 in sports, and probably before that without realizing it. But when I really started realizing the mental side of things, I was 18 and I thought it was just a sports skill. I was working on my mental game as a sports skill. When I heard more people started talking about it and raising awareness about it, I started to realize that this is more than a sports skill that's affecting my life. This is affecting my well-being. I've been working on that for a bunch of years and then sat down with my agent. I realized that I have a decent platform and I can push some of my help or some of the things that I've done and gone through along to youth and help the next generation grow up with the same skills that it took me so long to learn and realize I need it."

In the past there was a stigma, like "Suck it up, tough it out." Fast forward and more and more athletes are sharing their stories, Carey Price and Robin Lehner among them. How do you think this perception changed and continues to change over time?

"It's becoming more of a normal skill, or everyone needs to work on it. There's no stigma behind the times where people don't realize how important it truly is. I think everyone's really embraced it and realize that itself and it's important to work on. It's actually affected everyone's lives differently. I think everyone's realizing that and how important it is to continue to grow it. And it's different for every person."