Connor Hellebuyck’s 36th shutout matches total number of shutouts by original Winnipeg Jets

We often joke about the fact that on the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show I love to inject random (Drew would call them pointless) factoids about stats or team/player milestones. Today on our IC Instagram account a follower asked where the shutout Connor Hellebuyck achieved in last night’s 3-0 win over the Capitals put him “all time against every other Winnipeg Jets goalie”.

Last night was the 36th shutout of Hellebuyck’s career. He is the undisputed leader for this version of the Jets franchise with the next closest goalie being Ondrej Pavelec who had 11 shutouts during his time in Winnipeg. (He also had six for Atlanta but that doesn’t really fall within the scope of the question that was posed).

Looking at the Jets 1.0, the goalie with the highest total was Bob Essensa who had 14 and for good measure I checked shutouts for the WHA Jets and that was Joe Daley with 12.

But digging a little deeper at the 1.0 Jets there was a steep fall from goalie Bob to the next tender being the Bandit aka Daniel Berthiaume who had four (4). Then when I added them all up, I realized, combined there were 13 goalies who posted at least one shutout playing for Winnipeg between 1979 and 1996 who combined for 36 total shutouts.

They achieved those 36 shutouts in 1,192 games. Connor Hellebuyck did it in his 492nd game. That equals 700 fewer games to hit the same total.

Obviously the eras are different but as I would  say on the IC Show “it’s still notable”.