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Brian Glennie said:I read that Luongo's wife and kids live in Florida but does that mean he'll only waive for the Lightning or the Panthers? Maybe he'll take the job in Toronto because then he's only a 6 hour flight away instead of the 12 hours it takes him to get to Florida from Vancouver. Plus, the Leafs play 4 games a year down there and the NHL season is only eight-odd months long. Luongo could play for the Leafs and he'd still probably see his kids more than I do mine and we're living in the same house.
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:When Luongo said today, in the past tense, that it was great being there for 6 years, that is as strong a signal as you can send that he's out of there. The question for us is whether we want to make an offer. The roster cost, I now think, will be next to nothing.
Aside from the central question of whether we can/want to make the contract work, I can't fathom people questioning whether Luongo's a top-notch goalie. There's no doubt that he is.
I know all you Toronto Maple Leafs lovers want to jump in here. My guess? He'd prefer someplace quieter, but it should be pointed out that Luongo has a great relationship with goaltending coach Francois Allaire -- assuming Allaire isn't quitting.
Zee said:I understand your point, but it doesn't take a 6 hour flight from Toronto to Florida, or a 12 hour flight from Vancouver to Florida.
Damian said:Zee said:I understand your point, but it doesn't take a 6 hour flight from Toronto to Florida, or a 12 hour flight from Vancouver to Florida.
It would by prop....
CarltonTheBear said:After the "goaltending" this team has had to put up with since the lockout it honestly boggles my mind that some fans wouldn't be interested in a guy who is 1 year removed from a Vezina nomination. I couldn't care less how long his contract is, that's future-CTB's problem. With Luongo in net any post-CBA Leafs would have made the playoffs.
Peter D. said:Funny that I was thinking this last night, then it was brought up on the radio this morning -- what if an amnesty clause is negotiated in the upcoming CBA?
The Leafs could deal for Luongo, use it against his contract, then renegotiate another deal with him which would see a higher cap hit, but with less years. Don't know if it'd pass the "smell test" having just acquired the guy, but that could end up being the best scenario for the Leafs.
I'm still all for acquiring him regardless and worrying about the contract in 6/7 years time, but something like this could really work out in the Leafs' favour if the stars align.
bustaheims said:If they structure an amnesty period with the new CBA like they did with the original buy-out period for the current CBA, that won't be possible - teams were not allowed to re-sign players they bought out.
Peter D. said:In the end, I think this is all moot because I think a trade to Tampa Bay makes sense for all parties.
CarltonTheBear said:After the "goaltending" this team has had to put up with since the lockout it honestly boggles my mind that some fans wouldn't be interested in a guy who is 1 year removed from a Vezina nomination. I couldn't care less how long his contract is, that's future-CTB's problem. With Luongo in net any post-CBA Leafs would have made the playoffs.
bustaheims said:What I'd like to see in the new CBA, and what might help a trade for a guy like Luongo, is for teams to be allowed to renegotiate contracts of players as part of the trade process. Give them 7 days after acquiring the player to come to an agreement or whatever. Obviously, there would probably have to be some limits on how significant the renegotiation changes the contract, but, I think it would help ease a lot of tough situations that we're seeing around the league right now (Luongo, Nash, etc).
princedpw said:My guess is that the players union would be dead set against this. I think they would see it as a path towards making player contracts less guaranteed. I think the players union would want to exclude the possibility of ever being able to re-negotiate a contract -- they don't want to give teams any opening through which they might be able to exert pressure of any kind on players to negotiate away "money they have earned" through past good play.
Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:CarltonTheBear said:After the "goaltending" this team has had to put up with since the lockout it honestly boggles my mind that some fans wouldn't be interested in a guy who is 1 year removed from a Vezina nomination. I couldn't care less how long his contract is, that's future-CTB's problem. With Luongo in net any post-CBA Leafs would have made the playoffs.
Bingo.
The beauty here is that getting him is just a possibility, not a necessity. BB may decide that the contract is just too crazy. Fine. But at least there is the opportunity to contemplate the pros and cons of Luongo backstopping a team that hasn't had a goaltender of his caliber in ... well depending on how you rate Belfour, Cujo, Potvin, etc., since Bower.
Chett said:Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate said:CarltonTheBear said:After the "goaltending" this team has had to put up with since the lockout it honestly boggles my mind that some fans wouldn't be interested in a guy who is 1 year removed from a Vezina nomination. I couldn't care less how long his contract is, that's future-CTB's problem. With Luongo in net any post-CBA Leafs would have made the playoffs.
Bingo.
The beauty here is that getting him is just a possibility, not a necessity. BB may decide that the contract is just too crazy. Fine. But at least there is the opportunity to contemplate the pros and cons of Luongo backstopping a team that hasn't had a goaltender of his caliber in ... well depending on how you rate Belfour, Cujo, Potvin, etc., since Bower.
Agreed on the above. Some very, very rough math: Luongo has a career regular season save percentage of .919. If our 3 goalies from last season (Reimer, Gustavsson, and Scrivens) could have matched that percentage, that equates to 43 less goals against, moving us from 29th (264 GA)to tied for 11th (221 GA) in that category league-wide. That's a pretty significant difference, despite the inherent flaws in using SV% as the only statistic.
Obviously he wouldn't play all 82, so we wouldn't have had those numbers for all games, and those numbers don't take into account the quality of scoring chances offered up by our defensive lapses. But, I think we can agree it would have been nice to have that kind of consistency in net.