USA Olympic hockey hero Connor Hellebuyck made his return to his former Canadian home on Tuesday night, and Winnipeg Jets fans let him hear it.
The star goaltender, who stopped 41 of Team Canada’s 42 shots en route to winning gold, requested a trade from the Jets and landed with the New Jersey Devils last month, teaming him up with Jack Hughes, who scored the golden goal back in February.
The Devils made the controversial decision to not have Hellebuyck in net, citing a potential “reduction in our expected win probability.”
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Hellebuyck, though, was the backup for the night and still took the ice for warmups and got the wrath of the Jets faithful.
He was hit with chants, some explicit, from “coward” and “We don’t miss you” to “Trump’s your daddy” — President Donald Trump singled out Hellebuyck in his phone call with the team after winning gold and announced he would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Hellebuyck insisted that he felt it was his “duty” to play, but the front office had other decisions.
Hellebuyck was somewhat mum on his reasons for wanting a trade aside from joining a team he views as a contender, but that changed on Tuesday.
Hellebuyck said there was no single moment that led to him wanting out, and that some off-ice issues played into it, saying he had faced “more than online death threats.”
Dawson Mercer, who was sent to the Jets from the Devils in the trade, put two pucks past Jake Allen to help Winnipeg win, 3-2. Nico Daws, also now a former Devil, was in net for the Jets.
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The gold medal was USA’s first in men’s hockey since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team.
OutKick’s Matt Reigle contributed to this report.