3 NHL teams looking into a trade for Montreal's Jake Allen.

While it initially looked like there would be a number of options on the open market this summer for teams in the National Hockey League that were in search of help in between the pipes, the landscape has rapidly shifted over the course of the last week and now those options are suddenly looking very limited. The Red Wings traded for the rights to goaltender Ville Husso, quickly signing him to a new extension, while veteran Marc-Andre Fleury re-signed with the Minnesota Wild for two more years.

It is no secret that the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Washington Capitals, all 3 of which hope to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender next season, are currently aggressively seeking a goaltender and it would appear that they will be forced to fight over the few remaining options.

At the top of the list are pending unrestricted free agent goaltenders Darcy Kuemper, who played with the Stanley Cup winning Colorado Avalanche this past season, and Jack Campbell, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs this past season, but that of course only leaves 2 options for 3 teams. Acquiring either Kuemper or Campbell will likely now also come at a premium when you consider the fact that their agents will also be fully aware of this fact.

As a result of this, teams wary of overspending on a long term contract extension for a goalie may go the trade route and it would appear that all 3 of the aforementioned teams have done their due diligence in that regard.

Sportsnet's Nick Alberga is now reporting that the Capitals, Leafs and Oilers are among the teams that have looked into the possibility of acquiring goaltender Jake Allen from the Montreal Canadiens. Unfortunately according to Alberga the price for Allen is likely to be fairly high given that the Canadiens don't necessarily want to move him.

In spite of the fact that he is a well established veteran of the NHL Allen is still relatively young at just 31 years of age. That being said he is coming off something of a mediocre season with a 3.30 goals against average and a .905 save percentage over 35 games, but you also have to add in the context that he had arguably the worst team in the entire league playing in front of him during those games.

Allen likely won't be the first option for any of these teams, but he may be the one they have to settle for if they fail to land either Campbell or Kuemper.