The Vancouver Canucks and Roberto Luongo saga ends after two to three years of trade rumours, as the organization announced the trade today of Goaltender Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers before Wednesday’s trade deadline.
“This caught me off guard,” Luongo said, as quoted by the Canucks on Twitter in a post that was then quickly deleted. “But I’m excited. I’m going home.”
Luongo’s family currently resides in Florida, as his wife is from the state. He also played for the Panthers from 2000 to 2006.
The trade follows the Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic, in which Luongo was benched in favour of backup Eddie Lack causing an uproar among Vancouver fans, many of whom took to social media to voice their distaste.
The Canucks Hockey Blog @canuckshockey, summed it up best – “Between the losing, the Kesler drama, the Lu drama, I can honestly say I’ve never seen (or heard) #Canucks fans as mad as they are today.”
Luongo joined the Canucks rosters in 2006-07, and in his first season, he was a Vezina trophy candidate. With Luongo in net, the Canucks had the best regular season record for two consecutive seasons – 2010-11 and 2011-12 – and his success on the ice led the Canucks to the lowest goals against total in the NHL.
During the 2010-11 season, Luongo led the Canucks to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final. Ironically he will now be on the same team with Tim Thomas, who was the goaltender for the Bruins during the championship run.
As a Canuck, Luongo recorded 38 of the 65 shutouts of his career and this season. Luongo spoke with reporters today, “At the end of the day I think when I look back on it, it all worked out well, but it would’ve been nice to have a Cup ring.”
Written by Renu Singh, Editor-in-Chief of DARPAN Magazine
Photo Credit: Jeff Vinnick/The Vancouver Canucks
