It’s natural to watch the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers with envious eyes, wishing you had what they had. It seems to happen every season when GMs around the league take in the Stanley Cup Final and wonder which traits are missing from their own teams.

Both combatants have top-end forward talent, minute-munching defensemen and toughness in spades. But a term thrown around repeatedly during the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs has been “getting goalied.” The two highest save percentages this spring belong to Adin Hill and Sergei Bobrovsky, respectively. The Golden Knights and Panthers are great hockey teams, but neither gets this far without the consistently elite playoff goaltending they’ve received to date.

And maybe that’s why prospective 2023-24 contenders are already sniffing around the trade market, hoping to land a rock-solid No. 1 to carry them deeper next spring. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli listed Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck at No. 2 on the latest Trade Targets Board last Friday. Entering the final season of his contract and without an extension, he has never been a more attainable target.

The logic of pursuing Hellebuyck, or any top-end goalie for that matter, has plenty of holes in it. Is there a more random position in sports than hockey goaltender? Hill was one of five puck-stoppers competing for Vegas’ job at various points this season and took over midway through the playoffs after third-stringer Laurent Brossoit had already outplayed Hellebuyck in the first round. Neither Hill nor Bobrovsky was even starting for his team when the playoffs commenced.

Still, there’s no denying the safety Hellebuyck brings to any net. He’s a Vezina Trophy winner and the biggest workhorse of his generation. He has started 23 games more than the second-busiest goalie over the past five seasons, during which he’s compiled a .916 save percentage. He’s also rarely if ever had above-average defense protecting him in Winnipeg, so who knows what he could accomplish on a stingier team?