Connor Hellebuyck just got hit with a question no Winnipeg Jets goaltender wants attached to his name in October.
On Friday, Chris Johnston told listeners of The Chris Johnston Show that scouts he's spoken with now carry a specific worry about the Jets netminder.
His words: “Like one thing I've heard from scouts I've talked to is there's now a concern even from teams that might trade for him like what version of him are you getting?”
Read it again. The worry Johnston describes targets the goaltender himself, the one thing a team is supposed to feel sure about when it pays for an elite starter.
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And he isn't cheap. Hellebuyck carries an $8,500,000 cap hit, third-highest among NHL goaltenders behind Igor Shesterkin and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Paying that kind of money with doubts attached is like buying a used truck when the seller won't hand over the service records. Somebody has to blink first.
Stuart Skinner holds the Jets crease as Carolina comes calling
Here's the part that makes the noise louder. All seven of Winnipeg's decisions this season belong to Stuart Skinner and Clay Stevenson.
Skinner has carried the heavier load, collecting three wins across five appearances with a .906 save percentage.
Stevenson? An .872 mark in four games. That number won't calm anybody in the stands.
So who exactly is this team trusting right now?
The Jets sit fourth in the Central at 4-1-2, with 21 goals for and 21 against. Dead even. No cushion anywhere.
That margin got thinner on Thursday, when Winnipeg dropped a 4-3 overtime decision in Chicago against a club with a -11 goal differential.
Saturday afternoon brings the Carolina Hurricanes to town riding a six-game winning streak. It's the first meeting between the clubs this season.
Carolina has scored 31 goals in eight games. That's a lot of rubber headed toward a crease already under a microscope.
Scott Arniel won't have Josh Morrissey on the blue line, either. The defenseman is listed with a wrist injury and expected out until at least Oct. 22.
Kyle Connor has done his part up front with eight goals in seven games, four of them on the power play. Scoring isn't what's keeping people up at night.
Here's the blunt part. If Kevin Cheveldayoff ever takes calls on his goaltender, doing it while scouts openly question the product would be selling at the worst possible price.
Bad timing. Worse leverage. And every rival GM who heard Johnston's segment just got a free bargaining chip.
After Carolina, the Jets head out on the road for St. Louis and Dallas. The scouts will be watching that crease closely. So will everybody in Winnipeg.
Should the Jets trade Connor Hellebuyck before the doubts around him grow louder?
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