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With the NHL draft quickly approaching, we’ve been hearing a lot about the potential trade of Roberto Luongo. On Monday, Nick Kypreos tweeted the following:

#Canucks telling few #NHL interested teams they have multi offers on Luongo. Gillis still looking for a hockey trade rather than dump salary

— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) June 18, 2012

Darren Dreger, in his latest edition of the Dreger Report, echoed this, saying the Canucks are still in “listening mode” on Luongo.

When all the hockey insiders have the same information, you can assume it’s coming straight from the team. Coming from the Canucks, who are usually tight-lipped and controlling of all outgoing information, it’s obvious that Mike Gillis wants this message out there.

In an interview on the Team 1040 on Wednesday, he repeated the message.

“We’re listening to a lot of different teams talk to us about a lot of different scenarios involving lots of different people. You don’t know which one is actually going to be firm… We’re in a position where we can listen and that’s what we’re doing.”

So what’s really going on here? Gillis is using the media to get his message out to other GMs: make your best offer, we’re listening.

What about Toronto? Really, it’s still the most obvious destination just because the Maple Leafs likely want him more than anyone else. They have the cap room, the history with the player, and the most to gain, so at the end of the day their trade offer will be one of the strongest. Will another team do better? Only time will tell.

One interesting note: this is a long way from where Gillis was a few weeks ago when he said the team still hadn’t yet made a decision on whether to trade or keep Luongo. Clearly, the two parties talked, and Luongo said he still wants out. And now we wait for the trade.