Connor Hellebuyck’s first night as the New Jersey Devils’ No. 1 goaltender was rather stress-free. His new teammates made things easy for him as he shook off some rust in the Devils’ 5-1 win against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday.
“He not only seems like he’s in mid-season form but seems like he’s been here a long time,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters after the game. “He’s got a tremendous level of confidence.
For good reason: He’s earned that.”
The best goaltender of his generation playing behind an elite shot-suppressing defence is why New Jersey has suddenly become a threat to the rest of the NHL. ESPN reported last week that the Devils’ Stanley Cup odds shortened"from 25-1 to 14-1" after the news of the trade broke.
“I don’t know if there’s a sentiment that, ‘Oh, well, now all of a sudden the Devils are contenders,’” Devils general manager Sunny Mehta told reporters last Saturday. “If you think that now, I don’t think you shouldn’t have thought that (before the trade).
I was thrilled about the team we had coming out of training camp, and I’m still thrilled about the team.”
Before landing Hellebuyck last week, the Devils had spent more than a decade fruitlessly searching for a replacement for Hockey Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur. On Tuesday, Hellebuyck became the 21st different goaltender to start for the Devils since 2014-15, sixth-most in the league.
(Brodeur, now New Jersey’s executive vice president of hockey operations, told NHL Network that he “really had to push hard” to convince Mehta to trade for Hellebuyck.)
Consistency in New Jersey’s crease has been fleeting. Even this season, Jake Allen and Nico Daws (who went to Winnipeg as part of the Hellebuyck trade) had a combined and league-worst .779 slot save percentage on the day the Devils acquired Hellebuyck.
Meanwhile, Hellebuyck, who stopped 11-of-12 slot shots Tuesday, has been a model of consistency. Even during a down year by his standards, Hellebuyck was still remarkably steady last season, recording 38 quality starts for the Jets in 57 tries (66.7 per cent).
Between 2019-20 (when Hellebuyck won the first of his three Vezina Trophies) and 2025-26, he saved more goals than expected in 64.4 per cent of his starts. That ranked fourth out of the 66 goaltenders who made at least 100 starts during that span.
Over that same stretch, the Devils’ 16 starters combined for a quality-start rate of 50.5 per cent, which ranked 26th.
“The goaltending position is tricky to predict,” Mehta told reporters. “There’s more volatility in the results in goaltending than there are in other positions.
To that point: If the goaltending position is tricky to predict, where do you want to bet on? You want to bet on a person with a large sample size of excellent results, who is on a good cap hit.
That’s literally the three things that Connor (has).”
The Devils were uncharacteristically leaky Wednesday in a 5-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, surrendering season highs in shot attempts (80), scoring chances (32) and expected goals (5.73). But they still woke up Thursday morning with the league’s second-best differentials in shot attempts, slot shots on net and offensive-zone possession time.
New Jersey has outshot its opponent in four of its five losses this season, which has been a recurring theme for the team in recent years. Since 2023-24, the Devils have suffered a league-worst 65 regulation losses when outshooting their opponents.
The hope is that Hellebuyck can rectify that.
“It sparks a lot of confidence in us, what we’re building, what we’re trying to build,” Devils defenceman Brett Pesce told reporters last week about Hellebuyck’s arrival. “It’s nice to see other guys see it