Roberto Luongo, at a Vancouver Canucks practice in January amid rampant speculation of being traded. 2 & 1/2 months later, he is once again in the same spot as NHL trade dead line day is tomorrow. With the trade deadline now less than 24 hours away, the speculation on where a variety of players might be dealt is at a fever pitch. Roberto Luongo of course being the most discussed name in Vancouver. This has me wondering, where might the Canucks all time leader in pretty much every goaltending category find himself come Thursday morning. I have narrowed it down to some of the more likely & perhaps, less likely situations for the man called "Luuuu". - Toronto Maple Leafs We've actually been hearing this since before the dawn of time...or so it seems. Lui to Toronto makes sense for the Leafs. A team that is currently in a playoff position, but without a playoff goaltender. They also are kicking the tires on Miikka Kiprusoff, so we will see what goes on there. But Lui as a Leaf isnt an all too insane theory at this point. It will come down to if the Leafs have what the Nucks want in return. - Vancouver Canucks Chances are pretty good come Thursday morning Luongo could be staying put. Right now, this seems like the more probable situation with the way goalies have been dropping into the trade rumour mill lately & Gillis insisting on wanting reasonable market value back for his prize keeper. For now, the 1/1A set up in Vancouver has done decently and Luongo has kept the team player mentality by not griping about it publicly if he actually has any animocity to it. Perhaps he has come around to staying here for the rest of the year & has eased up on subtly e-mailing Mike Gillis articles on prospects from the Leafs & Panthers who have done well in a recent game. - Florida Panthers Ideally, this would be a dream come true for Lui. He really would embrace a move to Florida, plus it would give him a few extra weeks vacation time to work on his poker game & think up some clever tweets. Florida is going nowhere this year, and could certainly be looking to unload some of their veterans who might want to see a playoff game or 2. Canucks would be eager to get a useful part back for Lui with a prospect or two. Florida has plenty of both currently. Florida could part with 1 of the several NHL capable in a year or 2 prospects they have with either Theodore or Clemmensen so the Canucks get an NHL capable back up in return. Both teams would surely be pleased with what they get. - New York Islanders This will be a far more realistic scenario if the Islanders also go out & get Miikka Kiprusoff & Ryan Miller tomorrow. My theory that Charles Wang has asked Garth Snow to stockpile goalies in the hopes of trying out a goalie rotation idea similar to baseball teams pitching rotations is quite realistic. With Nabokov, DiPietro, Poulin & Thomas already, they are getting close to this dream. - River Rock Casino Probably a less likely scenario, but in a fit of rage, Roberto opts to retire immediately & focus on his budding poker career, only to return a week later after losing repeatedly when opponents learn to just hum Chelsea Dagger while at the table with him. - Waivers Maybe its because I just saw the new GI Joe movie last night, but what if Mike Gillis isnt actually Mike Gillis, but a clone made up of microscopic nanites that has been sent by Dean Lombardi or Chuck Fletcher? If the Sedins also get traded or waived, this theory should be immediately investigated. In any case, I suppose this COULD happen & thus Roberto might end up on waivers. - Hockey Night In Canada Lets be honest. Don Cherry is getting close to retirement & HNIC is looking for the next larger than life personality to throw in there. With Brett Hull seemingly M.I.A. and Sean Avery being hated by everyone, including his own mother, the amount of likable & entertaining personalities in the NHL to throw at the public is a slim pool currently for CBC. Brendan Shanahan seems unwilling to step down from the job he has, despite failing it massively. While Craig Conroy probably couldn't fit whatever he is going to say every week into a 5 minute segment, so this means there is still an opening. With Lui at the help, the CBC could team up almost anyone with him & they would seem less boring... except for PJ Stock. - Toronto Blue Jays If he can pitch, maybe he will go to Toronto for a different reason than to tend goal for a hockey team. Granted, he would be more suited as a catcher, and that too is something the Jays desperately seem to need after watching the opening day game. He already has a catchers mask & is used to playing without a goalie stick. The change of positions doesnt seem too much of a stretch. - TV or Movie Star After Luis epic acting job on the TSN video of him & Schneider getting along earlier this year ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ap8tlQ3oZ0 ) it seems possible Roberto could just drop his stick & blocker & pick up a script. I'm thinking a buddy comedy movie with Steve Carrell maybe. - Starbucks Really, whatever team he is with Thursday morning, there will be a Starbucks in that city... so this is actually the most solid guess I have. Whatever happens tomorrow, the fact is, Roberto Luongo will be somewhere Thursday & it will of be most likely of his own choosing since he has a No movement clause in his contract. It is also a near certainty that wherever he is Thursday some people will be happy & disappointed with it. Personally, I will be fine with him staying here. I like the fact that we have 2 #1 goalies. Its a position that you really cant afford to be thin on, and for now, we are not. If he moves on, I'll wish him luck wherever he goes.. I just might not cheer for whatever team he is on.
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I cant believe how in love the Flames fans seem to be with Dion Phaneuf.
They are acting like Bobby Orr got traded for Martin Kariya. Sure Phaneuf is a tough as nails hard hitter that CAN change the momentum of a game. But that skillset isnt enough to pass up the chance to make your team better now. Especialyl when your team was in dire need of an offensive boost. The Flames pick up offensive depth with Matt Stajan & Niklas Hagman that they desperately needed. They get some offensive depth. Instead of being a 1 line team with 1 or 2 other mid level scoring options, they now have 2, maybe even 3 capable lines with 1 trade. They get rid of a terribly underachieving Fredrik Sjostrom in the deal (although they were forced to take Jamal Mayers to offset that..so essentially that part of the trade is a wash). The Flames pick up Ian White. In White, the Flames get a very capable power play quarterback who will fill the absense of Phaneuf relatively fine in that regard. He managed to be a +1 in Toronto this year, so he obviously is doing something well defensively. as well. Where the Flames lose on this swap White for Phaneuf straight up, is size. Phaneuf is 5 inches taller and 30 lbs heavier. But grit & toughness is the one thing this defense had an abundance of with Jay Bouwmeester, Robyn Regehr, Cory Sarich & Adam Pardy. They needed a puck moving skater. White brings that to them. Sure, Toronto gets the flashier name out of the defenseman swap, and probably even the more talented one. But Ian White is no slouch & if Phaneuf doesnt progress much more, this part of the trade isnt too lopsided at all. This brings us to the rest of the package, Keith Aulie is a young defensman prospect that I am sure the Flames were not keen on moving, but to get as many bodies as they got, they had to dangle something else with Phaneuf. Maybe in 2-3 years, this will be a mistake. But in a "now" driven league, the Flames needed help NOW. Keith Aulie was sacrificed for the greater good of improving now. The rest of this trade breaks down Aulie for Stajan & Hagman (I dont count Sjostrom or Mayers in this. They were both throw aways). The future of Aulie is still uncertain. He COULD pan out to be a top 4 dman, or could be a career AHL journeyman. Its unknown. For the Flames, they needed scoring help NOW & Hagman with 20 goals and Stajan with 16, gives them that. They just landed a pair of guys who currently have 74 combined points, for a prospect that wouldnt be utilized by Calgary till Kipper & Iggy are past their primes. Calgary now can roll 3 competent lines (in theory) Iginla-Stajan-Dawes Bourque-Jokinen-Hagman Backlund-Langkow-Glencross This takes pressure off of Daymond Langkow to be a #2 centre which he doesnt really appear to be anymore. Mikael Backlund, assuming he stays up (he may get sent back to Abbotsford with all the new bodies) can slide into a #2 or 3 line spot where there is less pressure on him to perform miracles right away. Olli Jokinen & Hagman could turn into a deadly duo, if the shoot first Hagman and pass first Jokinen get on the same wavelength, while Stajan brings a mix of puck moving & shooting to the 1st line that was missing at centre with Jokinen and Langkow who are both pre-dominantly passers. This is a sound trade for them if they are thinking of making a run NOW. Getting 2 top 6 forwards & a bottom 6 forward for a bottom 6 forward & a prospect you might not use for 2+ yrs is a good decision in the short term. They dont have a lot of years left where Kiprusoff and Iginla will be elite top level talents capable of building a winner on. That time is already starting to slip as it is. They need to make use of these assets while they can, and this year could be their final chance to do that. This trade now gives them a better chance to do that. For Toronto, this is merely a matter of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Phaneuf isnt going to thrust them into the playoffs, and with the additional loss of Jason Blake to Anaheim today, they threw out 100 points in forwards. For a team that is already offensively challenged, they are quite literally pulling the plug on this season. I hope Phil Kessel is on a suicide watch, because after seeing todays moves he might consider it. He now has even less talent to play with than before. The leafs also did a goalie swap. JS Giguere is an upgrade on Vesa Toskala for sure, but he still cant carry a bad team anywhere on his own. Instead of the Leafs losing 5-3 on any given night, now they'll lose 4-2 instead. I saw a writer today suggested the T.O. trades is to distract the media from the fact the Leafs are in a tailspin. Its true. The media for 2-4 weeks will have Phaneuf Phever. They will disregard them going 1-5-1 or some abysmal mark like that in that stretch, and by the time they start to notice the team isnt any better, the trade deadline will have passed & there will only be a month and a bit left in the season & Burke can do damage control then, for only 4-6 weeks, instead of 8-10 weeks. The Anaheim Ducks get a small boost of offense that they may need depending on the status of often injured Teemu Selanne in Jason Blake. But they lose in the goalie swap. Will Blakes 1/6 of a goal (he did once score 40 goals however) a game make up for the 1/2 to 1 full goal a game Toskala will give up? perhaps. Afterall, Toskala is the back up & thus wont be damaging them as often as Blakes offense should help....in theory. Anaheim IMO didnt help themselves much in this deal here, and for a team only 5 pts out of the playoffs, they probably needed to do better in this deal. Blake will certainly get a chance to produce there however. As a natural left winger, something Anaheim doesnt really have right now, he instantly jumps into the 2nd line by default, perhaps maybe even 1st line depending how they see things fitting. If he recaptures some of the scoring touch he saw in Long Island where he scored 40 goals once, perhaps he can finish this year with 20 goals & then the Ducks will be able to validate this trade a bit more. For now however, I think they simply did not get enough for an asset like Giguere. My final grades on this deal Calgary B+ Toronto C Anaheim C- The next couple reports will be terribly incomplete for a multitude of reasons. Mainly health problems. I have recently battled a knee problem that I havent had to deal with in well over a decade. Now I have a shoulder problem that I thought I was done with 2 yrs ago returning. so I have actually passed recently on hounding some.
Because of this, my hockey numbers are WAYYYYYY down for the potential there was there. Toronto was the first tema where I was really hit by it. They were here for 2 days & it was only the pre-game arrivals that I did because I wasnt up to it before that, and they didnt have a pre-game skate because Gary Bettman is a mentally challenged troll of doom who decides to have games at 4 PM, completelt disregarding the home teams time zone in favour of his own folically challenged fucked up fantasyland brain where the continent actually ends at the Ontario border....anyways, onto the report. the goalies- No report on any of them. the defense IAN WHITE- 1 autograph. Generally Mr. White is a less than happy signer. However this time, he was one of the few who did it quite willingly. TOMAS KABERLE- 1 autograph. Tomas came in with a couple other players & made a fairly hasty retreat for the door, only stopping to sign for a small handful of the 30-50 people waiting before jetting inside. GARNET EXELBY- 2 autographs. In Atlanta, Garnet was a less than happy signer who was a strict 1 per when he did sign. In T.O., he signed multiples & without annoyance. It was the only pleasant surprise of the bunch. MIKE KOMISAREK- 1 autogrpah. Signed a modest amount, but still left lots of people hanging. Was not an overly good signer. LUKE SCHENN, FRANCOIS BEAUCHEMIN & JEFF FINGER- No reports the forwards ALEXEI PONIKAROVSKY- 2 autographs. Signed a considerable amount & usually would do 2 items if 2 were presented. LEE STEMPNIAK- 0 autographs. He signed a fair bit when he came out of the cab, I only missed him because others came first & he managed to get by while I was getting them. JASON BLAKE- 0 autographs. He signed a small handful as soon as he arrived, but quickly beelined for the door when there was even the slightest break in the requests. MOST people missed him. WAYNE PRIMEAU- 2 autographs. Didnt get asked a lot, but signed for those that asked. JAMAL MAYERS- 0 autographs. Formerly a good signer in St. Louis, Jamal apparently thinks hes a Hart Trophy winner now. Signed about 3 autographs when arrived, then jetted past the rest of the waiting fans. Classless. NIKLAS HAGMAN, MIKHAIL GRABOVSKI, JOHN MITCHELL, RICKARD WALLIN, JAY ROSEHILL, VIKTOR STALBERG, TYLER BOZAK, COLTON ORR & NIKOLAI KULEMIN- no reports. Total for Toronto- 11 autographs |
Canadagraphs Hockey BlogsFrom time to time I have something to say on hockey. Whether its the Vancouver Canucks, NHL in general, Womens Hockey or International Hockey...if I have something to post, it will be in here. Archives
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