Thanks to their 4-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday afternoon the Winnipeg Jets improved their record to 14-1-0 to open the 2024-25 NHL season.
That record not only gives them the best record in the NHL through the first month of the season, but it is also the best start any team has ever had through 15 games in the history of the league.
The Jets did win 52 games a year ago and had one of the best records in the league, but a lot of that success was driven by an MVP-caliber season from starting goalie Connor Hellebuyck. He masked a lot of flaws the team had defensively and probably won a few more games than it otherwise would have won with a more ordinary goaltending performance.
The Jets have also been a rather ordinary team for the better part of the past decade. They are consistently good enough to make the playoffs but never really good enough to make a serious run when they get there. They have not won a playoff series since 2020-21, and going back to the 2017-18 season they have won just a single playoff series during that stretch.
It was also a very quiet offseason for the Jets that saw them bring back largely the same roster.
So the fact they have stormed out of the gate and ripped off 14 wins in 15 games is a little surprising. There was an expectation they could — and would — be pretty good. Nobody expected them to be this good.
The driving force behind this start, again, is the play of Hellebuyck in goal. Even though he allowed one goal on Saturday, he stopped 96 consecutive shots between goals and recorded back-to-back shutouts. He already has three shutouts in his first 12 starts and leads the NHL with a .936 save percentage.
He is already a two-time Vezina Trophy winner and seems to be making a strong early case to win a third this season.
Along with Hellebuyck, the Jets also have some high-end players at the top of their lineup in forwards Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers and defenseman Josh Morrissey. Depth is a little bit of a concern, especially on defense, but some All-Star caliber forwards and the best goalie in hockey can take a team a long way. Whether or not that is far enough to win a Stanley Cup remains to be seen. Nobody in Winnipeg is going to argue with the results so far this season.
