Much like the majority of the hockey world, Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel is disappointed Connor Hellebuyck won't start Tuesday when the New Jersey Devils travel to Canada Life Centre in Manitoba.
"It would put closure to it. This doesn't," Arniel told reporters Monday, per Illegal Curve Hockey. "We're gonna see them in 10 games in their building, and I'm sure he's gonna be in the net then. So, it's disappointing."
Arniel feels that the Devils are allowing the situation to drag on by not starting him Tuesday.
"To me, it goes back to the ownership, it goes back to the fans, it goes back to the core guys that have been with (Hellebuyck) from the very beginning that he kind of left on," Arniel said. "That's the part for me that's hard. He just gave up on us. It would be nice to just finally be done with this."
Tuesday marks New Jersey's only trip to Winnipeg this season. The teams will play again Nov. 28 in Newark.
On Sunday, the Devils announced their decision to sit Hellebuyck, citing analytics.
"This has been an organizational decision for us that we've debated at length," Devils general manager Sunny Mehta said in a statement. "Connor Hellebuyck was adamant that he felt a duty to play on Tuesday in Winnipeg. However, in our estimation, playing in this game would potentially give us a reduction in our expected win probability."
Arniel, meanwhile, doesn't quite understand how that factors into this case.
"I've seen a lot of analytics in my life since it's really come into the forefront," he said. "I'm not sure how this works into the analytics part of it."
The Jets' leading scorer, Kyle Connor, is also bummed that he won't get the opportunity to face his former teammate.
"I didn't even think that was a possibility, so I was pretty surprised," Connor said. "I thought he was playing for sure."
He added: "I think we all hoped he was playing."
Hellebuyck will speak to the media Tuesday after morning skate, offering an opportunity for him to further discuss the reasons for his trade request, which ultimately resulted in a move to New Jersey in October.
