Thursday’s game for Team USA with Latvia can’t come soon enough for goalie Connor Hellebuyck.
Hellebuyck has to be ready to pull out his A-game from the equipment bag sitting in Team USA’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games locker room. All eyes are on the Americans who traveled to Italy to bring home a gold medal in men’s hockey, and many will no doubt focus on the man protecting Team USA’s net.
Last year’s top NHL netminder, playing for the Winnipeg Jets, Hellebuyck captured the Hart Memorial Trophy presented to the league’s MVP. He was also honored for the third time in his now 11 NHL seasons with the Vezina Trophy, an award given to the league’s top goaltender.
However, Hellebuyck hasn’t been that same Superman during the 2025–2026 season.
Since Jan. 1, Hellebuyck has posted a disappointing 4-6-4 record for the Jets. His 3.22 goals-against average and .889 save percentage could be seen as a cause for concern for Team USA coach Mike Sullivan and his staff of John Hynes, David Quinn, and John Tortorella.
The Jets’ 32-year-old goalie, who led his teammates to an 116-point 2024–2025 season, is too good to remain in a malaise. And being an Olympian is too important for the Michigander not to have his A-game on display in Italy.
“Getting to put the USA jersey on, that’s going to be the moment I'll remember forever, and get to cherish,” Hellebuyck told reporters in Winnipeg after the final Jets game before the Olympic break. In net for Winnipeg on Feb. 4, the game didn’t go well for Hellebuyck. With the 5–1 home loss to the Montreal Canadiens, involving 22 saves on his part over three periods, Hellebuyck’s overall record swelled to an unspectacular 13–16–7 this season.
Team USA’s backup goalies, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman, like Hellybuyck, aren’t having their best professional seasons up until this point of the current campaign. Heading into the Latvia preliminary game on Thursday, for Team USA, it looks like it’s Hellebuyck or bust for the 25-man roster.
If anyone could get their game back on the right track, however, Hellebuyck has the skills to make it happen.
“There is no goaltender who has proven himself to be better or more consistent than Hellebuyck across an 82-game season,” according to The Hockey News 2025–2026 Yearbook report on the Jets.
If the Team USA coaching staff has faith that what Hellebuyck can do in an entire NHL season will emerge during the two weeks of the Olympics, any doubts about his performance will be at a minimum prior to Thursday’s game.
Coming out on the losing end during last year’s NHL-sponsored 4-Nations Face-Off, an eight-day tournament skated in Boston and Montreal, it was Hellebuyck who gave up the losing goal for the U.S. team in overtime to give Canada the tournament championship. The goal, by Connor McDavid, making the final score 3–2 on Feb. 20, still stings for American Hockey fans. Skating on Boston ice in defeat surely remains fresh in the minds of Team USA as well.
Hellebuyck told nbcolympics.com earlier this week how important that USA–Canada 4-Nations confrontation remains to him.
“It took me about three or four days to really get over that loss, because I suppressed all those feelings for a week and a half of how cool that actually was and how bad I actually wanted to win.”
Getting to redeem himself in a rematch with Team Canada, and be part of a Team USA squad to claim the gold in men’s hockey for the first time since 1980 in Lake Placid, would certainly be a catalyst for Hellebuyck to return to Winnipeg for the restart of the NHL schedule on Feb. 25. Not many 130th (Round 5) NHL draft picks find themselves representing their country in the Olympics, as Hellebuyck now is.
Playing in the NHL’s smallest market, Hewllebuyck, who last season also captured the William M. Jennings Trophy as the goaltender who allowed the fewest goals during the regular season, will have an exceptional roster skating in front of him. Led by team captain Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, and the Tkachuks—Matthew and Brady, Hellebuyck’s supporting cast on Olympic ice is the most impressive field in decades.
Twenty-one players from the USA team that participated in the 4-Nations Face-Off are in Milan. In a short series, familiarity with teammates’ habits is vital for success. The roster was constructed by Sullivan, his assistants, and Team USA general manager Bill Guerin. Familiarity was an important link among the team framers in deciding who would be in uniform. As they are generally pleased with what they saw in the 4-Nations Face-Off, Hellebuyck has to be comfortable in what to expect from those shooting and defending in front of him in Italy.
Disappointment in all likelihood remains fresh for Hellebuyck and his teammates from when they were last a unit in Boston. Any rematch with Team Canada in the gold medal round would likely have slim margins. A bouncing puck here, a deflection by a defender there, or an old-fashioned one-timer whizzing past his blocker could make the difference in receiving a gold or silver medal for Team USA and their goalie.
Talk of earning a spot in the Feb. 22 final round game for gold isn’t premature for Team USA. They are that deep in talent. Upsets, yes; they are part of hockey history, but in Milan Cortina, they are highly unlikely. Just this side of an injury to Hellebuyck, a Team USA—Team Canada Part Deux appears almost automatic.
