Pavelec Out, Hellebyuck Up- Hamonic News
It was a strange game on Saturday. Andrew Ladd was getting jeered in the stands as he did his best baking of the season, ‘turnovers for everyone!’ and Chris Thorburn scored the GWG, short-handed and unassisted.
The story coming out of it was that Shane Doan injured Pavelec as he charged into the goalie after a love shove from Stuart. The fact that there was no penalty and that Doan carries the reputation of a cheap shot artist, always walking the fine line of a hockey play or intending to injure, adds to the confusion. That’s Doan’s line, he has no middle ground when he tries his particular style of cheapness, one perfected and honed for almost 2 decades.
The real news now is that Pavelec has a knee strain and will be out until January or February as just mentioned by Paul Maurice today. Connor Hellebyuck has been called up and he ‘who is the best goalie not in the NHL’ is about to get his real first shot in what some believe will be a great career. No pressure kid.
It’s the tandem that many Jets fans, including yours truly, have wanted to see for awhile. For the first time in Pavelec’s career he really is injured and for some time and that is going to force the Jets to draw on their goaltender depth. Is it time to ride the Hellebus?
That was a line from a great Jets Twitter personality, Pitty Da Fool. This won’t be trial by fire as Hutchinson will make the most starts early on but remember last year when Hutch got to run with the lead, he tired out. Jets brass will be watching this closely and you can bet the rookie will get a fair share of opportunities with the first one likely coming against either Minnesota or Colorado on the road either Friday or Saturday. Perhaps starting in Minny is trial by fire.
Joel Armia was also called up today but does not look to play yet. As the Moose embark on a road trip and the Jets it was probably best to bring him up now while there was far less travel involved.
IF you didn’t see my tweet from the weekend about Hamonic and the Jets here is the latest: Garth Snow asked for Trouba straight up. That comes from a source close to management who has never been wrong before.
For the Jets the question should not be about whether Trouba for Hamonic is fair or smart but why they would give up on Trouba? If they are open to trading Trouba should he not be offered around to more teams in the hopes of getting a better deal? The other side effect that perhaps it forces Snow to lower his price.
Hamonic wants Winnipeg, or he wants either Alberta team as his preference. The reports on the weekend were that Snow asked for TJ Brodie from Calgary and that was a ‘no’. So Snow is trying to drive the market up but seems to be getting stalled. That’s good for the teams Hamonic has requested but if the Jets want him at a better price they need to more leverage.
First they don’t need another RHD but more importantly they need to find teams that do and start talking to them. Why? The point here is not to get Hamonic at any cost but to get him and still retain the most assets possible at your price, not Snow’s. That is why I have been saying if you are ready to part with anything for Hamonic why not look around and see if there is something better available and put the pressure on Snow to lower his price or sweeten the deal.
It’s negotiating 101 and right now Chevy needs to be doing what he can to make the market murky to get a better price. Again, as I said on Twitter; Hamonic is not a ‘must have’ player he’s a ‘great to have’ and the Jets do not need to go ‘all-in’ to acquire him, nor should they.
The Jets play the central division bottom tonight in Colorado. There’s a team that should be all over Hamonic, if only to make the Oilers upset.