The Winnipeg Jets have a crease crisis currently, and a reunion with a Winnipegger could be a good stop-gap to lessening its severity.
Chris Driedger Leaves KHL; Could Jets Explore Reunion?
That Winnipegger is Chris Driedger, who was playing for the Kontinental Hockey League’s Traktor Chelyabinsk this season but on Sunday, came to an agreement with the club to terminate his contract.
Driedger was with the Jets last season as they acquired the now-31-year-old at the 2025 Trade Deadline in March from the Florida Panthers to give them more depth in case of injury to Connor Hellebuyck or Eric Comrie. He never ended up playing a game for the Jets but did start five for the Manitoba Moose before signing with Traktor in the offseason.
Reuniting with Driedger — perhaps on a one-year, two-way contract — would bring a veteran netminder into the room to bolster a club whose goalie depth has never been shallower in the past decade than it is right now. Reigning back-to-back Vezina and Hart Memorial Trophy winner Hellebuyck is out four-to-six weeks after undergoing an arthroscopic knee surgery Saturday, a worst-case scenario to say the least.
Driedger went 8-9-2 with a 3.05 goals against average (GAA) and .897 save percentage (SV%) with Traktor this season. While injuries have derailed his NHL career, the 2012 draft pick has good big-league numbers: a 31-24-5 record, 2.45 GAA, .917 SV%, and five shutouts in 67 games between the Ottawa Senators, Panthers, and Seattle Kraken.
Comrie/Milic Tandem A Big Question Mark
With all due respect to Comrie, who has been thrust into the starter’s role until Hellebuyck returns sometime after Christmas, he’s not an elite goalie. While he has provided solid relief for Hellebuyck since returning to the club last season and has been alright in the first two starts of his temporary-number-one era, he may not be up to the task of stealing games for a club that’s been very inconsistent thus far.
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The only time he was tapped to be “the guy” — in 2022-23 with the Buffalo Sabres in the first season of a two-year deal — things went so badly the team had to pivot away from that plan by mid November.
Similarly, with all due respect to Thomas Milic, he has never played an NHL regular-season game. The 22 year old got off to a nice start with the Moose this season (5-2-2, 2.14 GAA, .921 SV%, and a shutout) before being called up in the wake of Hellebuyck’s injury to serve as backup, but has only just gotten back on track after a very rough sophomore 2024-25 where he struggled mightily in the American Hockey League (5-12-3, 3.44 GAA, .877 SV%).
He is on the Jets’ bench — and will have to make some starts at some point — by necessity, not necessarily because he’s ready just yet.
Jets Cannot Afford December Slump
The Jets cannot afford to lose the majority of the 15-20 games on their calendar through Hellebuyck’s injury timeline. They are just 12-9-0 currently and out of the playoff picture, fifth in the Central Division and a point out of the second Western Conference wild-card spot as the all-important American Thanksgiving threshold nears.
Teams not in the postseason picture by U.S. Turkey Day only end up qualifying for the big dance about 25 per cent of the time. The Jets’ urgency going forward will have to be much higher than it was last season, when the team had already built up a huge point cushion by that date (they were 18-5-0 and first in the Central and Western Conference) which would have protected them from even a prolonged slump.
The Jets have a number of issues outside the crease that have led to their mediocre current placement — poor five-on-five play, faltering special teams, lack of secondary scoring, and inconsistent defensive structure among them — so signing Driedger would not be a silver bullet by any means. However, they have to do anything they can to improve their short-term outlook; bringing in an experienced goalie could do just that and keep them afloat so their post-Presidents’-Trophy campaign doesn’t go down the drain.
