News coming from the Winnipeg Jets has been fairly quiet the last few weeks as we patiently wait for the end of the Stanley Cup Finals, the 2016-17 season and the start of what most are thinking (and hoping) should be a busy off-season for Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff.

While the Jets goaltending situation isn’t even close to resolved yet according to Sportsnet’s Elliote Friedman, incumbent number one goalie, Connor Hellebuyck is taking his training to a new level and working with a new goaltending mentor / personal trainer / sports performance coach…

Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck is making some off-season changes. He will spend time this summer with Adam Francilia, who has a lot of experience working with goalies. Francilia could be loosely defined as a personal trainer, but prefers “sports performance coach” because he also deals with nutrition and mental health.

In a second ‘thought’ covering the Hellebuyck news, Friedman shared some of Francilia’s personal philosophy about the goaltending position and what some of the work Connor will be doing this summer:

“Goaltending is an unnatural position,” Francilia continued. “We are not created to be goaltenders, which is why so many have hip issues. We have to completely re-program their brains not to counter-rotate. Teach the brain to think differently, teach (Hellebuyck) to recruit his left oblique muscle to stabilize and offset the counter-rotation.

You can read Elliotte’s full comments and breakdown of Connor’s pending summer plans at thoughts 17 and 18 in his weekly “30 Thoughts” column which is – as we’ve mentioned before here – a must read for any hockey fan who wants to stay connected.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

You may also want to take special note of thought #10 as well.. The Trouba rumors never stop yo!

As for Hellebuyck? Many people noted that there seemed to be a difference between Connor’s rookie year where he lived up to his “big and boring” play style to the following season where he was not as square to shooters, nor was he as quiet in his side to side movement in the crease. Overall it was noted that his play seemed more erratic than the year past.

It’s not 100% certain Hellebuyck will be the number one goalie at the start of the 2017-18 season, but it’s highly likely he is and hopefully the change to his summer training program provides better results in the fall. Francilia’s work is well known within the hockey world, so this should be seen as a big positive by Jets fans.



