I like that we’ve got some one to answer our goalie prayers, and this is good news by all means.
Goaltender Roberto Luongo signed a $27 million, four-year deal with the Canucks on Thursday, less than a week after he was acquired in a trade from Florida.
“Roberto has proven himself to be an elite goaltender,” Vancouver general manager Dave Nonis said in a statement. “His international experience, Vezina Trophy nomination and ability to consistently play at the highest level are tremendous assets that we believe will make the Vancouver Canucks competitive each and every night.”
The new deal will pay Luongo $6 million in the first year, $6.5 million in the second year, $7 million in the third year, and $7.5 million in the final year. The contract also contains a no-trade clause for the final three years. [espn]
That’s a chunk of change for some one we just grabbed a week ago today. I think Luongo[canucks] is a good goalie, but there is something to be said about seeing how he handles Vancouver and the Canucks as a team. A “no-trade clause” means he’s our main man in the net for the next few years. Makes me curious about what’s going through Cloutier’s head right now.
He’s now the highest paid on the Canucks’ payroll. Ranked within the top 3 goalies in the world – something we need and something we should pay for. Enough with this ‘new goalie every year’ crap or ‘standing behind a goalie who can’t perform and is always injured’ stuff (yeah i’m talkin ’bout you Clouts!). Agreed, it’s good news – although does it leave much within our cap to acquire some other goodies for the season?
Now the Sedins for 3! Yippee
Well I was just about to make a post about how I was a little concerned by the Luongo trade and signing because the Canucks had $2.55 mil tied up in Cloutier in a very buyers goalie market and then I just saw that they traded him to the Kings for a 2nd round pick. Seems like pretty darn good value for a guy who couldnt beat out Kevin Weekes back in the day when Tampa was terrible and now cannot seem to stay healthy.
Makes me wonder what the heck the Kings are doing. They give up a major playmaker in Demitra (albeit a fragile one) to presumably get younger and their next big moves are to bring in another goalie to compete with two good young goalies they already have and signing a 65 year old defenseman.
crow is up to something down there. but it’s a good thing cloutier is gone (but dont tell alannah at VCOE i said that, shh! :p) it leaves room in our cap to *hopefully* sign carter, although he IS asking for a lot… we’ll have to wait n see
I am really torn on Carter. I generally am apprehensive to invest loads of money in players that had career highs (as Carter did in goals) but he did seem to click well with the Sedins. I just do not ever see the guy as more than a 60 point per year man. The unfortunate part is that this all took so long and it seems like many of the free agents have been snapped up.