On Oct. 20, Sportsnet analyst Stephen Valiquette said Utah was the only team to make the playoffs last season without getting 25 points from its backup goalie. He missed a team, and he still undersold it. Tampa Bay's backups came in one point short, at 24. Utah's got 13. The number everyone is quoting this morning is Karel Vejmelka's .872 save percentage, after four goals on 22 shots in Thursday's 5-3 loss in Seattle, and we won't dress it up. With the backups earning only 13, Vejmelka had to earn 79 of Utah's 92 points himself, and that workload is still why he's the Utah goalie in the Hellebuyck trade rumor Valiquette was passing along. It's also why Utah shouldn't move him until it fixes the net behind him.
The numbers behind the claim
We checked Valiquette's line against the NHL's 2025-26 numbers for all 16 playoff teams. Our measure is points in the backup's own decisions, two for a win and one for an overtime or shootout loss, since Valiquette didn't say how he counted. After Utah's 13 and Tampa Bay's 24, every other playoff team got at least 28 from its backups, and Buffalo's got 65.
Vejmelka earned the other 79 of Utah's 92 points. That's 85.9 percent, the biggest share for any playoff team's starter. Andrei Vasilevskiy was next at 77.4 percent for Tampa Bay, and nobody else got past 70. Vejmelka played 64 games and started 63, both first in the NHL, and his 38 wins were one behind Vasilevskiy's 39. Behind him, Vitek Vanecek went 5-13-3 with an .883 save percentage in 22 games. Valiquette's own summary, by our transcript of the clip, was that Vejmelka did it on his own. "He's a game eater," Valiquette said.
Why New York would want that
Here is the rumor, in the words Sportsnet published with the clip on X: "I'm hearing Vejmelka's name a lot being linked to the Rangers. Hellebuyck, by way of Vejmelka coming to New York, would be going to Utah." By our transcript, he added that he hears this version more than one sending Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to New York, and that any Hellebuyck move has to work for all three teams.
It's a rumor, and secondhand at that: an analyst passing along what he hears, without saying any of the three teams are talking. The only report we've read that ties Utah to Connor Hellebuyck came before the season: on Sept. 9, Pierre LeBrun listed the Mammoth with Carolina and Buffalo as possible landing spots for the Winnipeg goalie, per TSN. That report doesn't mention the Rangers or Vejmelka. We'd call the three-team version a long shot.
The Rangers' side of it is easy to follow, though. Igor Shesterkin is out for the season with a right knee injury, the team announced Oct. 10, a day after he was hurt in Washington, according to the Associated Press via NBC Sports. Joonas Korpisalo hasn't played this season. Dylan Garand finished the Washington game and has started all six games since, through Thursday's 5-4 loss in Toronto. He's been good: 4-3-1 with a .915 save percentage in eight games, seven of them starts. Valiquette spent much of the segment praising him too.
Still, a team that lost its starter for the season in October has more than 70 games left to fill. If New York wants a goalie it doesn't have to manage, the one who started more games than anyone in the league last season is the obvious call. Nobody trades for an .872; they trade for 63 starts.
What it means for Utah
Vejmelka started Thursday in Seattle and made 18 saves on 22 shots. Of the four he allowed, two came at five-on-five and two on Seattle power plays, one of them a five-on-three. Seattle added an empty netter, and Utah outshot the Kraken 36-23. Through Thursday's loss in Seattle, he has played nine games, started eight, and gone 5-3-0 with an .872 save percentage, 46th of the 58 NHL goalies who have played at least three games. Sebastian Cossa has played four, started three, and is 2-1-0 at .820.
Utah is leaning on its backup a little more than last season, with eight starts of 11 for Vejmelka against 63 of 82 a year ago, and the backup is already earning points. Cossa's two wins are 4 of Utah's 14, about a third of what Utah's backups got all of last season. After the Pittsburgh game we blamed the penalty kill, not Cossa, and four appearances are too few to judge a 23-year-old. But .820 is what's behind Vejmelka right now.
If the rumor came true, Hellebuyck would take the 63-start job and the gap behind the starter would stay exactly where it is. Hellebuyck started 57 games for Winnipeg last season and went 23-23-11 with an .895 save percentage. Vejmelka's was .897 in 63 starts. Hellebuyck has the bigger name, but on last season's numbers the swap is a wash in the crease, and it does nothing about the 13.
What we'd do
Keep Vejmelka. The goalie Utah needs is the second one: someone who can take 20 starts and turn them into 25 or more points, so Vejmelka doesn't have to start 63 again and Utah isn't one injury from finding out what Cossa is in February. Cossa might grow into that job, and we'd like to see it. Until he does, or until Utah finds someone else, trading away the one goalie who has shown he can carry this team would only move the problem. If the price of Hellebuyck is Vejmelka, we'd pass.
Sources: NHL API club stats and final standings for 2025-26, club stats, schedules, box scores, play-by-play and league goalie stats for 2026-27; Stephen Valiquette, Sportsnet on X, Oct. 20; Pierre LeBrun via TSN, Sept. 9; the Associated Press via NBC Sports, Oct. 10; our Oct. 20 recap.