Winnipeg Jets Goalie Connor Hellebuyck Is A Professional Choice For Vaccination – Winnipeg | The Canadian News

Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made it crystal clear on the first day of the team’s training camp at Bell MTS Iceplex: It’s not anti-vaccine.

But Vezina’s winning former netminder says he would have preferred to have the option of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to Canada.

After a day one fight that included delivering a nifty shootout goal to highly rated prospect Cole Perfetti, 28-year-old Michigan native Hellebuyck confirmed he was diagnosed with COVID on August 20.

“When I got it, it was just the moment that I started to feel ready for camp. I was really excited about where the summer was headed, and then I got (COVID) and it set me back two weeks, ”Hellebuyck said. “It was a bit surprising, but it is still circulating. He was healthy enough to get over it. I don’t have a spleen, so I thought it might be compromised, but I thought I handled it the way it was projected to handle it. “

Hellebuyck says that some of the symptoms he experienced included very bad headaches and very bad fatigue that prevented him from moving a lot. But she says she tried to stay as mobile as possible and also spent some time in the sauna as part of her recovery strategy.

“It took about a week, week and a half for the fog to lift and I started to feel like myself again,” Hellebuyck said. “Now I’m pretty excited about where I am and where we are going.”

But despite that optimism. the Jets goalie says he was not entirely on board with having to get vaccinated before recovering from the virus. “I felt very forced. Right where I am with my health, I had just had COVID and I got over it, and then I had to get the vax, ”Hellebuyck explained.

“If I had had some time to choose, I might have gotten what was recommended three months later. I would have liked our AP (Players Association) to help us a little more with that because the pay was coming into that. They weren’t going to pay us if we had to quarantine ourselves. “

Hellebuyck says he would have even preferred to have a bubble option as a potential option, but understands that the end goal is to make things better for everyone. And with that experience now in the rearview mirror, his focus is completely on having a shot at winning the Stanley Cup.

“I think we’re getting into a slightly different mindset,” was Hellebuyck’s response to the question of whether there was a change in attitude in preparing for the season following the acquisition of defenders Brenden Dillon and Nate Schmidt.

“We know that we are getting older, I am not getting any younger. Blake (Wheeler) says it all the time, once you become that older kid, you look back and you wish things had been different, so now is our time for that to be different. “

And one thing that will be different for Hellebuyck this season is his backup netminder. Eric Comrie assumes the role of Laurent Brossoit, who signed as a free agent with the Vegas Golden Knights this summer, for the past three years.

There are concerns, at least from the media and fans, about Comrie, who has a total of nine career NHL starts, an unflattering 4.08 goals against average and a .873 save percentage to go along with it. a 3-5-0 record.

But Hellebuyck says he fully supports it.

“I’m a great defender for Coms because I think he’s a great goalkeeper and he works hard and he’s a great kind of team,” said the number one shotgun stopper for the Jets, who estimates he has 60 to 65 starts this season. “They asked me that last year and I made up a number, to be honest.”

Hellebuyck ended up starting 45 of Winnipeg’s 56 regular season games and was 24-17-3 without a decision to go along with a 2.58 GAA and .916 save percentage, nearly identical to his career stats from 2.63 and .917 upon entering. his seventh NHL season.

“I was telling my family and friends that I am very excited for this season. I’m always excited to go back and play hockey, but in this case I feel like we’ve really sold the farm and we’re going for it. “