Of all the teams who can make the kind of offer needed to land Connor Hellebuyck, the Buffalo Sabres very well may have the most ammunition to make it happen.
Buffalo has three goaltenders with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon and rookie Colten Ellis who played and performed well last season. Luukkonen and Lyon alternated leading the way and both played well while Ellis was able to spell them with occasional starts and stepped in when injuries or illness took them out of action.
Buffalo goalies were good (.900 team save percentage, third best in NHL), but they were also extremely busy (2,383 shots against, 10th most in league) which can put them in a precarious position. If they perform similarly then that’s good, but any kind of dip in performance could throw the Sabres into the wild card race or worse. With Luukkonen now having limited no-trade protection, that would make him seemingly tougher to move now.
The Sabres also have young players the Jets would desire. Between Konsta Helenius, Noah Östlund and Zach Benson, Winnipeg would certainly want one of those forwards along with a prospect defender like Radim Mrtka, Adam Kleber or 2026 No. 4 pick Daxon Rudolph in a trade. A veteran who can score like Jack Quinn or Josh Norris would be a possibility, Norris has no-trade protection and Quinn can be a free agent next summer. With Hellebuyck’s demand now public, the Jets demands may have to come down quite a bit.