Canucks GM says Luongo has a friendly contract

By Anthony Caruso III The Capital Sports Report Owner/Managing Editor/Sr. Writer There have been rumored that the Vancouver Canucks wanted to trade goalie Roberto Luongo since the summer time. There were no takers in the summer time, and just a couple of days ago, there was speculation that Luongo was garnering interest from the Philadelphia Flyers. However, the Flyers elected not to trade for him and went for a cheaper goalie, in former Flyer Brian Boucher. Yet, Canucks GM Mike Gillis says that Luongo’s contract is not a roadblock in any potential trade. “There’s been a lot more interest in Roberto than people wanted to recognize because the contract was onerous or difficult,” said Gillis. “That has never been mentioned to me by one team. I know some people like to make a big deal of that but it’s a very friendly contract for a lot of reasons. That’s one of the reasons why in the new collective agreement there are penalties and you can’t sign these types of contracts because they are favorable. So contract is not an issue.” The netminder will be 34 years old in April and had a $5.33 million dollar cap hit through the 2021-22 season. In the new CBA, there was a “Luongo rule,” where teams are not spared from a slary cap hit if the player decides to retire before the end of the contract. According to the rule, teams can retain a portion of a cap hit and salary hit to make his contract more appealing to other teams. But the Canucks are not interested in doing that. “I haven’t talked to anyone about keeping a portion of his contract,” said Gillis. “Is that off the table? No, I mean everything is on the table when you talk about those things. There are concepts you can discuss. But Roberto is an All-Star goaltender and I don’t feel compelled or see any reason why we would go down that path with a player of this caliber.” © 2007-2013 The Capital Sports Report. All rights reserved. All the articles and photos contained on the website are protected by the US Copyright law and may not be re-produced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcasted without the prior written permission. The Capital Sports Report and its logo are official trademarks of Anthony Caruso III and Anthony Caruso Enterprises.