BLOG: Inside the Masks

WINNIPEG – For those of you that love goalie masks, this article is for you.

The same two artists have put together some stellar work for the 2025-26 season for Connor Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie of the Winnipeg Jets.

Steve Nash of EYECANDYAIR has been working with the reigning Vezina and Hart Trophy winner for a while now. Hellebuyck’s mask appears to be a simple design but if you look closer at it you will see a lot of cool details.

“Connor’s pretty analytical with things. Like he really gets into his mask design. We both sort of thought about incorporating the holes that are actually in the mask with the artificial holes. It takes the vent holes right out of the mask, it just looks like it’s one straight old school looking mask,” said Nash.

“Each hole is a little piece of art on its own. You just got to get it symmetrical looking and stuff and get the drop shadow to make it look three dimensional as best as you can.”

If you look at the top part of the mask, Nash has added a cool little detail.

“The dark area we just ghosted his 37 and there’s all different types of fish in there that are just ghosted in. When you move the mask, the fish will show up or disappear. It’s a hologram affect.”

Moving to the back part of the mask, Nash and Hellebuyck have included

“The two main logos in the middle are the (Odessa) Jackalopes and the (UMass-Lowell River) Hawks. Project 11’s on there, he’s got his families initials on there. Up high on the back, he’s got two good luck symbols. He’s got a clover and a Chinese symbol for good luck,” explained Nash.

“The bottom is Lake Michigan, just a silhouette of that. Those are all little personal things to him.”

While Hellebuyck is more hands on with his mask, Comrie leaves his mask design to Jason Bartziokas. Artists need inspiration and Bartziokas got his idea for Comrie’s mask while watching an episode of Home Ice that starred the Comrie family.

“I think that was a credit to actually your guys’ behind the scenes footage,” said Bartziokas.

“When Eric had your crews, cameras come into the to his house, you know, you got a glimpse of the chaos at the Comrie house.”

The mask has a lot going on – so Bartziokas nailed the chaos in the Comrie home with two kids and two big dogs running the show.

“So, we got the on one side, his children flying in, basically one of those, like, planes that you would get at, you see at outside the grocery store,” said Bartziokas.

“And so, they've kind of like taken over that. And I wanted to make it, like, rated G or PG, so we used, like the Nerf bullets flying off the plane, headed towards the two dogs who are in shock.”

The hard part for Bartziokas was waiting to get the mask to Comrie.

“Credit as always to (Jets Head Equipment Manager) Jason McMaster, like I had these masks at the end of the regular season of the last year, right? I was chomping at the bit, and he said, ‘you can go ahead and paint them if you want’,” said Bartziokas.

“But Eric didn't want to be distracted with the playoffs (going on), and I was totally cool with that, so, but yeah, like I was chomping at the bit to get at these things. So, I think I gave him about a month after the season was over, till I reached out and be like, ‘Hey, can we start on this?’ The summertime is always a rush for any mask painter.”

The final piece to the puzzle is the back of the mask as Comrie always has the Canadian and American flags to show his nationalities.