Hellebuyck of Jets named Unmasked Goalie of the Year

Connor Hellebuyck was an easy choice for the 2024 Unmasked Goalie of the Year Award, but not just because the Winnipeg Jets workhorse No. 1 also won his second Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie and led -- or in some cases, almost lapped -- the field statistically during the calendar year.

It’s how -- and how often -- Hellebuyck succeeds that makes him perfect for an award created to recognize not only individual excellence but also themes that dominated the conversation about goaltending during the previous 12 months.

For Hellebuyck, that starts with how well he thinks and studies the game.

“'Helle’s' hockey mind is better than anyone I've ever met,” said Jets backup Eric Comrie, who is back for a third stint with Hellebuyck and the Jets in nine NHL seasons. “I don't think people realize that because he keeps it to himself, but he tells me things I would never have thought of in my life. It's unbelievable. The way he breaks down everything is incredible, and his positioning is perfect.”

Hellebuyck’s ability to anticipate plays based on subtle details is hard to quantify, but the results speak for themselves. From Jan. 1 through Christmas, he led the NHL in wins (42), and his .925 save percentage was 10 points higher than Linus Ullmark in second place among goalies that played at least 35 games.

Just as impressive is how often Hellebuyck plays at a time when most teams are trying to taper the workload of their starting goalies and trending more toward tandems. His 62 starts so far in 2024 trail only Juuse Saros (63) of the Nashville Predators and Andrei Vasilevskiy (63) of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and no goalie faced more shots (1,843) and made more saves (1,704) than Hellebuyck.

After winning the Vezina last season, Hellebuyck is again the frontrunner this year, leading the NHL (among goalies with at least 10 starts) in wins (22), save percentage (.927), goals-against average (2.07) and shutouts (four). The 31-year-old has a chance to become the first goalie since Martin Brodeur in 2007 and 2008 to be named the League’s top goalie in consecutive seasons and just the fourth to win it three times since general managers started voting for the Vezina in 1981-82, joining Dominik Hasek (six times), Brodeur (four), and Patrick Roy (three).

Hasek’s brilliance was often described as having a “brain like a computer and a spine like a slinky” for the way he was able to first anticipate what was coming before it happened and contort his body in unique ways to counter it. Hellebuyck, who has referred to his style as “big and boring,” is the anti-Hasek when it comes to how he uses his 6-foot-4, 207-pound frame to stop pucks.

“When we're talking about elite goalies, he's probably the most physically limited flexibility wise,” said Adam Francilia, an exercise physiologist who specializes in goaltending, has worked with Hellebuyck for the past eight seasons, and currently has 11 clients in the NHL. “He’s the antithesis, so it's almost like when somebody loses a sense, all the other ones are elevated and because 'Helle' doesn't have that world-class, Cirque du Soleil flexibility and athleticism, it's almost like his other senses are heightened, but those senses are the ones that he happens to be very gifted at, so it's almost the perfect storm for him.”

Hellebuyck’s ability to foresee plays is very much at a Hasek-like level.

“To me his game is built on his skating -- he's a hell of a skater for a 6-foot-4 goalie -- his ability to stay on his feet longer and his ability to read the play,” said Jets assistant coach Wade Flaherty, who was previously Winnipeg's goaltending coach for seven seasons. “If you watch his head, he is breaking down every possible scenario. When a guy has the puck, he's scanning that ice all the time, and he's on it. He is so big on being in position and I call it calculated depth because he knows what the options are. It's amazing.”

It shines through in video sessions with Flaherty and Comrie, when Hellebuyck is often able to detail where a shot or pass is going long before it happens and explain why based on a wide range of inputs that can include everything from how they’re holding their hands, where the stick is relative to their body, whether their hips are open or closed or where they are looking -- or sometimes not looking.

“I'll be like, ‘You’re a little deep here,’ and he’ll say ‘Yeah, but I felt that was going to go over to that guy standing over here, so I was kind of backing off a little bit,’” Flaherty said. “I'll never, ever take that away because his brain is special.”

Hellebuyck will share those insights during the game with Comrie, whether it’s at the bench during a TV timeout or in the locker room between periods.

“The way he talks about plays like ‘The screen was here, so I know he has to shoot there,’ and he just goes there, it's unbelievable,” Comrie said. “He trusts himself and his instincts so much and that trust is a very big part of his success.’”

Some of that instinct may be innate, but a lot is the consistent work Hellebuyck has put into his craft, from studying players' stick blades when he was younger to learn how the puck came off different curves, to fine-tuning his stance and how he moves with Francilia, to on-ice and video sessions with Flaherty.

“He’s very detailed in everything he does,” Flaherty said. “Before games with his warmup, from the [Francilia] core and stability work to the racquetballs, doing his juggling, throwing them against the wall, his eye exercises sitting on the bench. You wrap all that stuff into a box and is that what gives him the consistency night after night? Or is it his ability to go into those games with his experience of playing 60 games a season for the last eight years? I think it's his attention to detail, to his practice habits, even the littlest detail has to be perfect. If we’re on the ice and he's not feeling 100 percent, we're doing something at the end of practice to make him feel ready to go in the sense of, ‘OK, there it is, I just got my sweet spot in my body.’ He's so in tune with his body as a goaltender.”

All of that allows Hellebuyck to excel at a time when League-wide save percentage continues to decline and NHL forwards and offensive attacks have never been more dynamic or unpredictable -- at least to most goalies. All of which makes Hellebuyck a perfect choice as the 2024 Unmasked Goalie of the Year.

PAST WINNERS

Marc-Andre Fleury, 2023
Linus Ullmark, 2022
Marc-Andre Fleury, 2021
Andrei Vasilevskiy, 2020
Robin Lehner, 2019
Pekka Rinne, 2018