Jets lean on Skinner-Stevenson tandem as Hellebuyck era pauses and Devils wait their turn

Winnipeg’s first month without Connor Hellebuyck has quickly become a live test of the club’s depth, its cap strategy and its ability to manage transition in goal while remaining competitive in a tightly packed National Hockey League season.

Patchwork crease, credible start in Winnipeg

The Jets are 4-3-3 without Hellebuyck, an opening stretch that reflects both adjustment and resilience as a new goaltending tandem settles in.

Stuart Skinner, who signed a two-year, $7.5 million contract with an average annual value of $3.75 million on July 1, has carried much of the early workload. The 25‑year‑old is 3-1-3 with a 2.67 goals‑against average and .912 save percentage in seven games, all starts.

Clay Stevenson, claimed on waivers from the Washington Capitals on Sept. 28, has provided support at the back of the depth chart. The 25‑year‑old is 1-2-0 with a 3.08 GAA and .893 save percentage through his first three starts for Winnipeg.

For a franchise long defined in net by Hellebuyck’s consistency, those numbers represent a deliberate, system‑driven attempt to preserve structure rather than replicate a single elite workload. In a Western Conference race where points banked in October and November can shape the margin for playoff qualification later in the season, stabilising that position has immediate competitive implications.

Leadership framing a transition year

Inside the dressing room, the message has been to control only what is on the Winnipeg bench.

“We focus on the group we have here,” captain Adam Lowry said on Oct. 17. “Guys are excited to be here. Guys are excited to play for the Jets. We come with a mindset that we want to get better every day. We want to win a Stanley Cup here. We want to improve. So we don’t really focus on the stuff that’s out of our control.

“Obviously, it’s a big piece in our lineup missing, whether it’s assets or whether it’s the player himself. But this is what we have. This is what we have to make do (with). You have to put your best foot forward regardless of the situation you’re thrown in. I think we’ve done a really good job with that.”

Coach Scott Arniel echoed that approach on the same day, underlining the coaching staff’s focus on the current roster.

“At the end of the day for me, I’ve got 23 guys and all they care about is winning hockey games,” Arniel said. “My preparation, my thoughts, are on that. I’m not worried about who is here and who is not here.”

For a club managing a major change at its most specialised position, those comments frame the season as a test not just of personnel but of organisational stability under the collective bargaining and competitive structures that govern every team in the NHL.

Hellebuyck’s legacy and the outdoor stage

Any assessment of Winnipeg’s present in goal still runs through Hellebuyck’s body of work.

The 31‑year‑old is the all‑time leader for the Jets/Atlanta Thrashers franchise in:

• Games played: 625
• Games started: 615
• Wins: 345
• Shutouts: 45

Among goalies to play at least 80 games for the franchise, his .916 save percentage and 2.58 GAA are the best. Those benchmarks set the standard for any successor and help explain why every shift in Winnipeg’s crease reverberates beyond a single season. Goaltending of that calibre typically underpins sustained playoff contention; replacing it is rarely linear.

The Jets’ next opportunity to measure themselves without him comes in one of the league’s most visible showcases. They face the Montreal Canadiens in the 2026 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, HBO MAX).

It will be the second NHL outdoor game staged in the city. Hellebuyck started the first, making 29 saves in a 3-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the same event and at the same venue, then known as Investors Group Field, on Oct. 23, 2016. Winnipeg’s return to that stage without their record‑setting goaltender highlights the extent of the transition and provides a highly scrutinised platform for Skinner and Stevenson.

Devils waiting on Hellebuyck debut

While Winnipeg tests its internal depth, New Jersey is managing the other side of the equation.

It remains unclear when Hellebuyck will make his debut for the Devils, who are 6-4-0. The schedule offers an early focal point: New Jersey is due to play in Winnipeg on Nov. 10, a fixture that would carry obvious narrative weight if Hellebuyck were in uniform.

To this point, the Devils have relied on a tandem of Jake Allen and Nico Daws. Allen is 4-2-0 with a 3.15 GAA and .883 save percentage in six games, all starts. Daws is 2-2-0 with a 2.78 GAA and .872 save percentage in four games, also all starts.

The result is a .876 team save percentage, tied with the Anaheim Ducks for 23rd in the league. In a conference where small margins often separate automatic playoff places from the wildcard positions, that figure underscores why New Jersey’s organisational decision to add Hellebuyck is so central to its medium‑term ambitions.

New Jersey’s internal pipeline: Daws, Mercer, Bjugstad and Command

Part of the Devils’ calculation involves not only the immediate upgrade in net but how the rest of their roster and prospect pool is structured.

Nico Daws, selected in the third round (No. 84) of the 2020 NHL Draft, is 25 and has a 26-26-1 record with a 2.94 GAA, .897 save percentage and one shutout in 59 games (54 starts) across five seasons. Those numbers outline a goaltender with meaningful NHL experience but still projecting as part of a tandem or depth chart behind a clear number one.

Up front, Dawson Mercer’s durability and scoring profile remain important pillars of New Jersey’s forward core. The 24‑year‑old has four assists in 10 games this season. He has scored at least 20 goals in three of his first five NHL campaigns, including 42 points (20 goals, 22 assists) in 82 games last season. Mercer has yet to miss a game in his six NHL seasons and has 213 points (103 goals, 110 assists) in 420 games. New Jersey drafted him in the first round (No. 18) in 2020, and his reliability over that span gives coaching staff flexibility when integrating new pieces around him.

Veteran depth is represented by Nick Bjugstad, even though he has not played this season because of an upper‑body injury. The 34‑year‑old had nine points (six goals, three assists) in 61 games last season with the St. Louis Blues and Devils, who acquired him in a trade on Feb. 4. Over 14 NHL seasons with the Devils, Blues, Utah Mammoth, Arizona Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins and Florida Panthers, he has 339 points (163 goals, 176 assists) in 821 games. That experience offers situational value once he returns, particularly in managing matchups in a conference with significant centre depth.

Further down the pipeline, New Jersey’s 2026 first‑round selection, Command, represents a longer‑term project. Chosen with the No. 12 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, he has 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in six games with Örebro’s junior team in Sweden and has yet to register a point in six games with Örebro in the Swedish Hockey League. That split reflects a common development pattern: strong production at junior level alongside an adaptation curve in a senior professional league.

From a roster‑building perspective, the Devils’ mix of an established core (Mercer), mid‑career depth (Bjugstad) and a first‑round prospect (Command) offers multiple timelines around which to integrate a goaltender of Hellebuyck’s calibre once his debut date is confirmed.

An inflection point shared across two markets

The Jets and Devils sit at different points on the competitive arc but are linked by the same goaltender and by the structural realities of a league that forces difficult choices on roster continuity.

For Winnipeg, a 4-3-3 start with Skinner and Stevenson in net supports the view expressed repeatedly by Lowry and Arniel: that internal standards and collective structure must hold while a generational franchise goaltender is elsewhere.

For New Jersey, early‑season results underline why Hellebuyck’s eventual arrival has the potential to reshape expectations in a season where marginal gains in net could decide seeding and, ultimately, the durability of a competitive window built around players such as Mercer and a maturing prospect base.

Between an outdoor showcase at Princess Auto Stadium and a November meeting in Winnipeg circled on both calendars, the next month offers a concentrated look at how two organisations navigate one of the most consequential positions in professional team sport under the same regulatory and competitive framework.