NHL Trade Rumors: Trading Vancouver Canucks' Cory Schneider May Not Be an Option

The Vancouver Canucks announced yesterday that goalie Roberto Luongo suffered an injury in Sunday’s win against New York. For now, Cory Schneider will be the Canucks number one goalie. 

It has been widely assumed that the Canucks would have to trade the backup goalie before the trade deadline this season.  It makes sense; he is a talented young player who is stuck behind an entrenched starter.

Schneider will be a restricted free agent after this season and the Canucks will have to make a decision sooner or later. The general thought is that they could bring in quite a haul for him this year at the trade deadline. 

While some fans would rather see Luongo traded out of town, the reality suggests that he won’t be traded. 

Luongo is under contract for what feels like the end of time and has a pretty hefty cap hit of $5 million a year.  Along with that you would have to get him to waive his no trade clause which doesn’t seem very likely. 

So that leaves them with the option of moving Schneider. 

While it may seem like the Canucks could get decent return for Schneider, there may not be much of a market for him at the deadline. 

Any team looking to pick up Schneider at the deadline would be a team that saw themselves as contenders. There are not many of those types of teams that don’t already have their goal tending shored up. 

Philadelphia, New York , Pittsburgh, Washington, San Jose, Chicago, and Detroit all are set at goal tender and will not, barring a major injury, be interested in Schneider at the deadline. 

Perhaps the biggest exception to that would be the Tampa Bay Lightning.  

They were within one game of the finals last year and returning starter Dwayne Roloson is struggling this year. Some of that is the play in front of him and some of that is his age. 

So let’s say that the Lightning, or another team that rises up, feel that they are one goaltender away from getting back to the Finals this year and are in the market. 

Would Schneider be that guy? 

There are other options that may come cheaper and make it harder for Vancouver to get equal value. 

In Long Island the Islanders are carrying three goalies right now. Most notably is Evgeni Nabakov who has made it pretty clear he would like out.  

Nabakov would be cheaper and is a guy who has much more experience than Schneider. The Lightning have already mined the Islanders for a goalie and might prefer to do so again over Schneider. 

Then there is Jonathan Bernier in Los Angeles.

He is stuck behind Jonathan Quick and the Kings might also be looking to move their back up. Bernier and Schneider are both young (Bernier is 23 and Schneider 25) and both considered future number one goalies. 

Bernier may come cheaper than Schneider as he has flown under the radar compared to Schneider. Schneider was on the President’s Trophy winning team, got a start in the playoffs and has some cache across the league.  

If a team could get Bernier for less than Schneider they might prefer that, thinking they were getting a player with a similar upside. 

The Canucks are going to find out that Schneider is not the only option for other teams looking to make a deadline deal. That may force them to hold onto Schneider and make decisions this off season. 

In the off season more teams will come into play as landing a young and up coming goalie will be a much sought after commodity, even for some contending teams. It looks like the Schneider versus Luongo debate will be a topic all year in Vancouver.

For more inane ramblings follow Andrew Eide on twitter @andyeide