Photo Credit: Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody, but the Vancouver Canucks have fielded multiple offers for goaltender Eddie Lack, according to TSN’s Aaron Ward. Ward’s report also singles out one team as being among the most interested:

With the spectre of being sent to Buffalo now lingering in the shadows, we might expect Lack to share that ‘Don’t trade Lack’ petition on Twitter any minute…

In all seriousness, Buffalo makes a tonne of sense as a Canucks trade partner. 

Currently the club only has career backup goaltender Chad Johnson on the books, and it seems probable that Tim Murray may look to legitimately improve his club for the upcoming season following a year of cynical tanking – in which Murray successfully(and intentionally) iced the worst team in recent hockey history. Acquiring Lack would certainly help with that.

In being bad intentionally, Murray has also built up a rather significant war chest. In addition to the second overall pick (which isn’t going anywhere), the Sabres own an extra first-round pick (21st overall), and two second-round draft picks (31st overall and 51st overall). If the Sabres are willing to dangle their own second-round draft pick in a trade for a goaltender, well, it’s hard to imagine the Canucks doing much better than that…

Though we should note, for the dreamers out there, that Murray has been clear about his willingness to deal that other first-round draft pick. I’d be shocked if he parted with a first-round pick for a goaltender though, even one as good as Lack.

Now we should cool our jets a bit here. It’s fascinating that the Sabres are in on Lack, and it’s a good sign for the Canucks that there are multiple parties bidding on their young goaltender. You may recall last week I argued that if the market for New York Rangers goaltender Cam Talbot was as hot as it was being characterized as, most notably by TSN’s Darren Dreger, then the Canucks would be likely to receive the sort of offer that might entice them to part with Lack.

Now it’s beginning to sound like the market is as difficult as we always anticipate the trade market for goaltenders to be. Take this recent quote from Bryan ‘is looking to land a bona fide second-line forward for Craig Anderson’ Murray, via LNH.com editor Arpon Basu:

“It’s not going to be a satisfactory deal, there’s no question,” Murray said. “I’m not going to get what I think I should get.”

Welcome to the goaltender trade market.

Murray also dropped a comment that might imply that a team not unlike the Sabres is legitimately sniffing around for a goaltender.

“A team on the rise would much prefer a young guy to grow with the team is the indication I get,” the veteran general manager said.

Generally speaking I suspect that Jim Benning would prefer to keep the more tested NHL goaltender, since nothing else jives with the way he’s prioritized the position since taking over last year.

If the market is hot and the Sabres – or another of Lack’s multiple suitors – are offering up a very good pick, you could see Lack moving on. If ‘it’s not going to be a satisfactory deal, there’s no question’ that’s a different story.