WINNIPEG — Connor Hellebuyck got hooked on bass fishing as a teenager.
What started as a leisurely activity with his grandfather morphed into a hobby that got his competitive juices flowing. When he was a junior in high school, he got his older brother, Chris, into it, and the two frequently competed against one another. Eventually, they each pulled in a friend, and the four of them would participate in weekend tournaments.
“It got very competitive but it was just so much fun, especially when you start to realize how much skill goes into it,” Hellebuyck told Sportsnet during a one-on-one interview. “And my favourite thing on this planet is getting better at things.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find an NHL player who spent so much time mastering a skill other than hockey at a young age. But Hellebuyck had an unconventional road to stardom, a stark contrast from his Team USA teammates at the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off. He’s the only member of Team USA that didn’t play in the USHL, World Juniors or for the U.S. National Team Development Program.
“I actually had no idea about any of that,” he said. “I was just playing public high school hockey and enjoying it.”
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4 Nations Face-Off on Sportsnet
The inaugural edition of the 4 Nations Face-Off is here with the top players from Canada, Sweden, Finland and the United States going head-to-head in the highly anticipated best-on-best event. Watch all the games on Sportsnet, starting with Canada vs. Sweden on Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT.
Hellebuyck’s father, Chuck, wasn’t one of those dads who taught his kids how to skate before they could walk. Connor and Chris were first introduced to the sport by playing roller hockey with their cousins. The boys went on to play at the house league level for several years, despite attracting interest from higher-quality leagues.
“With what was involved and the cost, I was like, ‘I can’t do this,’” Chuck said. “I just wanted the kids to have fun. That was the most important thing.”
But once Connor was 10 years old, it was clear he had outgrown house league. So he joined a AA travel team — a step below AAA hockey, the highest level for his age group.
“I was never on the best team,” the Jets goalie said with a laugh.
But he wasn’t complaining. Connor had attended AAA tryouts and, while it was clear he was up to par, Chuck didn’t love all the politics that came with playing at that level. Neither did a young Connor.
“I remember he made a comment that he didn’t feel like there was a team aspect with it. It was very, kind of, not cutthroat — those weren’t his words — but he just wasn’t comfortable with all of it,” Chuck recalls. “He was like ‘Dad, I kind of just want to go back to my team.’ He always got along with his teammates and was such a team guy. He wanted to play together, as a team, and win.”
As the years went on, Chuck met people who played AAA hockey growing up and said they lost a passion for the game
“To me, it just reinforced that I did the right thing for the boys,” Chuck said.
Developmentally, playing at a lower level benefitted Connor, too. At the AAA level, he likely would’ve shared a crease with another goalie and, given how well-structured those teams were defensively, he wouldn’t have faced a heavy shot workload. At the AA level, however, he was pelted game-in-and-game-out, providing him the chance to get countless reps as he learned how to anticipate where a shot would go, control rebounds and see through traffic.
“Fifty shots a game was nothing for him,” Chuck said. “And he loved it.”
Despite playing at a lower level, Connor always made it known that he was steadfast about becoming a professional hockey player. While Chuck appreciated the sentiment, he always told his two hockey-loving boys to have a backup plan in case hockey didn’t work out.
“When he was 12 years old, I remember him telling me, ‘Dad, I don’t have a backup plan.’ I said, ‘That’s okay, It takes time to develop that.’ And he’s like, ‘No, I don’t want a backup plan. It’s going to get in the way. I just want to keep going until I make it,’” Chuck said.
He was taken aback.
“But seeing the seriousness in his face and how he had clearly thought this out, I thought: who am I to kill a dream?”
Connor played AA hockey until his freshman year of high school, when he began playing for Walled Lake Northern High. In Michigan, public high school hockey is widely regarded as a dead-end on the path to realizing your hockey dreams. Elite talents usually play for private school prep teams, instead, or with the National Team Development Program. Chuck remembers an instance, during one of Connor’s high school games, where a parent of another goalie told him that unless your kid was at the NTDP, they had no chance to go anywhere in hockey.
“Just the way he said it — it bothered me,” Chuck said. “These were the kind of parents that I avoided. I never bought into that. A person can do whatever they put their mind to.”
In a lot of ways, Connor had tunnel vision.
“I knew absolutely nothing,” he said. “I didn’t know the path. I just had the desire.”
And the confidence.
When he was a senior in high school, Connor got a tryout with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers. While Chuck says he never felt like Connor had a real shot, the entire experience was eye-opening for him. Connor was a brick wall out there, stonewalling players during breakaway drills.
“Guys were getting frustrated. And I just remember thinking like, okay, he’s better than average,” Chuck said. “By then, I had learnt about all the levels, and I thought, okay, this is top-level juniors in the U.S. Most of these kids are going to college and he’s just frustrating the hell out of these guys.”
After wrapping up his high school career, Hellebuyck joined the NAHL’s Odessa Jackalopes.
“I would have been happy if he got some sort of partial scholarship out of it — I was never expecting it to lead to what it did,” Chuck said.
The rest is history.
Hellebuyck tore up the NAHL, caught the Winnipeg Jets‘ attention and was selected in the fifth round of the 2012 NHL Draft (Hellebuyck’s second year of draft eligibility). He then ascended as one of the best goalies in college hockey, spending two years with UMass-Lowell before turning pro and dominating the AHL.
Since becoming an NHL regular in 2016-17, Hellebuyck has solidified himself as a true game-breaking talent at a position that’s straying away from workhorse goaltenders and inching closer toward tandems. This year, he’s having a Hart Trophy-worthy season and is a virtual lock to win his third career Vezina.
And this week, he’s poised to backstop Team USA in the first best-on-best tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, where he was a third-stringer for Team North America.
Despite what he’s done this year, it’s fair to wonder how he’ll fare in this setting.
In a tournament where management groups put a heavy emphasis on big-game and NHL playoff experience, Hellebuyck’s resume — at both the youth and pro level — isn’t littered with post-season success.
His playoff stats over the last two years have been subpar. In last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs — against Vegas and Colorado — Hellebuyck posted an .878 save percentage and a 4.28 goals-against average in 10 games. That Colorado series last year was especially noteworthy, with Hellebuyck saying afterward that he had played his best hockey.
“You can break down the stats however you want, but when I watch those games, I’m liking the product that I’m putting out,” Connor said. “If I keep putting that game forward, the odds are going to be in my favour.”
Connor says he believes the way he played against Colorado was good enough to win that series — things just didn’t shake out that way.
“When he says stuff like that, it’s not off the cuff. It’s not ‘Oh, I think I’m great’ type of arrogance. That’s him studying everything,” Chuck said. “He’s analyzed every shot he’s seen and he’s thought it through.”
But if Hellebuyck comes out and shines at this tournament, those playoff struggles will be far in the rearview mirror.
“It’s going to be a new challenge,” Connor said. “A new level. And I’m really excited because that’s what I love to do — I love to get better. I love to learn and continue to try to be the best.”
