It’s August 28th today, which means we are now Tim Stapleton (42) days away from the Jets taking on the Oilers on opening night of the 2024-25 NHL season. Remember when Stapleton had a career best 27 points with the Jets in 2011-12 and then left the NHL the year after to play overseas for the rest of his career? Anyways, it’s time now for part 3 of 3 of my mini series where I’ve been looking at the ideal line combinations for the Jets to use on opening night. I covered the defence, I examined the forwards, and now it’s time to look at the goalies.

Now obviously, I mentioned in part 2 that there is no such thing as “goalie lines”, so this time I’ll be looking at how the Jets should share the crease in the upcoming season. Lineups change throughout the season, and that includes at the starting goalie position. Gone are the days where starting goalies start 70+ games. Also gone are the days where backup goalies are there just in case of an injury or only used in “winnable” games or tough back to backs in the schedule. Today’s NHL requires teams to carry not just a good starting goalie, but a reliable backup goalie as well.

The trio of goalies available for the Jets (to start the season) are 2023 Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck, former Wild, Sharks & Devils goalie Kaapo Kahkonen, and now 3-time Jets goalie Eric Comrie. Here’s how the Jets should balance the workload for their goalies, maximizing a balance of having a healthy, confident and reliable guy in the crease for all 82 games of the season.

Starting in goal for your Winnipeg Jets for around 75% of the games will be Connor Hellebuyck. The now 2-time Vezina Trophy winner is poised to continue where he left off in the regular season in 2023-24. Forgetting the less than ideal playoff performance from Hellebuyck, the Jets wouldn’t have achieved the record they did last year without Hellebuyck. Entering his 9th full year as the Jets starting goalie, at age 31, Hellebuyck has no signs of slowing down any time soon. Hellebuyck started 60 games last season, and the sweet spot for the upcoming season should be for him to start between 57-62 games, depending on how the season unfolds. Having an arguably top 3 goalie in the league can never be understated, and Jets fans surely appreciate what Hellebuyck has done thus far in net throughout his career.

With the departure of Laurent Brossoit, the Jets backup goalie last season (who had a great year might I add), is headed to the Chicago Blackhawks to compete for the starting job in net. The backup job for the Jets is now available, and it’s very likely that Kaapo Kahkonen will win that spot on the Jets. I’ve talked before about how it’s tough to get a read on what version of Kahkonen the Jets might see this year. Will the Jets see the Minnesota Wild version of Kahkonen where he posted a .910 save percentage with a sub 3 goals against average, or will the Jets see the San Jose Sharks version of Kahkonen who had some of the worst stats in the league? I think the Sharks bad team was to blame more than Kahkonen himself, especially last season on just an awful Sharks team. After a brief 6 games with the New Jersey Devils, Kahkonen is ready to flip the page and get things going with the Jets. In terms of his workload, the most games he’s played in a season is 37, so 20-23 games shouldn’t be a problem for him, and I’m expecting him to have a decent 1st season with the Jets.

We’re all hoping for a healthy season for the Jets goalies, but if the unfortunate happens the Jets have a decent option for the “third string” goalie. Eric Comrie is back with the Jets, for the 3rd time now, and can be a fine temporary replacement in net. Even if both goalies stay healthy, I’d like to see Comrie get at least 1 game this season, whether it’s at the end of the season or during a busy stretch of the schedule mid-season.

Finally, the goalies to keep an eye out for who should one day play for the Jets in net are Thomas Milic and Dom DiVincentiis. The pair of young goalies continue to develop nicely, proving that they’ve been worth the late-round considerations in 2022 and 2023. Hellebuyck still has many good years ahead of him, but don’t be surprised if in 2-3 years from now we see one of these goalies step into that coveted number 2 role on the Jets.

That concludes this mini 3 part series, make sure to check out the other 2 parts (about defence and forwards) if you haven’t already! We’re still patiently waiting for Cole Perfetti to sign his contract extension, but for now we’ll all just count down the days until Jets hockey is back.