The Buffalo Sabres remain heavily in the trade rumors for Connor Hellebuyck.
At this point, it’s not even clear what’s real on social media and what isn’t but one aspect is quite obvious: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen matters here.
Over the summer, it seemed the Sabres could end up trading UPL to the Winnipeg Jets in a deal for Hellebuyck.
The latest suggestions instead make it look like it’d be a three-team deal where Luukkonen goes somewhere else.
There’s definitely plenty of reason to believe that a Hellebuyck trade would somehow involve a Luukkonen move, one way or another.
Jets Might Not Need Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
The first aspect to consider here is that the Jets no longer seem to need UPL as much.
At least with how they’ve begun the season, Winnipeg likely believes they have two usable goalies for this season.
Stuart Skinner is the veteran who is playing well in the early going. Then they picked up Clay Stevenson off waivers, and he’s performing at the best level he’s ever shown professionally.
It seemed straightforward that trading away Hellebuyck would bring back a goalie to Winnipeg, but that’s no longer as clear. UPL might not be able to find a new home with the Jets.
UPL’s Logical Landing Spot
There’s one spot that makes more sense for Luukkonen to end up: the New York Rangers.
The Rangers lost Igor Shesterkin to a season-ending injury, and they still are without Joonas Korpisalo due to injury.
That leaves Dylan Garand getting as much action as he can handle. The rest of the Rangers’ possible options are guys that they would probably prefer to have in the AHL.
Luukkonen would be some level of upgrade, and he could probably push for the starting gig as things stand.
The social media rumors suggest that it’s the Rangers portion of proceedings that isn’t going well so far. It’s hard to know what to believe, but it’s fair to think that’s true.
The Rangers would know why Buffalo wants to trade Luukkonen, which would remove a lot of the Sabres’ leverage. New York would likely not offer a ton, and so Buffalo would have to decide what to do.
But the reality is also this — if the Sabres can end up with Hellebuyck, it feels like a move worth making no matter what the other tendrils in a potential three-team deal might be.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Sabres’ Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen Trade Could Decide Connor Hellebuyck Landing Spot appeared first on HEAVY.