Luongo's Bittersweet Legacy was Well Worth It

Most us remember where we were the day Roberto Luongo was traded to Vancouver in 2006. The main piece that was sent to Florida was Todd Bertuzzi. This was at the time an amazing trade for Vancouver and well it still gave us five years of outstanding hockey that should not be tainted.

At the time, it felt like an amazing trade because they only had to give up a third of the West Coast Express line and in return we got a Top five NHL goalie in the game. The previous year, the twins had proven to be capable of producing first line scoring and it was a perfect opportunity for Naslund to pass the torch to the Sedins.

In 2007, Luongo was the only reason why the Canucks made the playoffs. When his stats dropped off in 2008 so did the Canucks wins. From 2009 to 2012 Vancouver had one of the best teams in the NHL every year. It was awesome to have Luongo in net during those years. We missed winning the Cup by one game but by no means Luongo costed us the Cup. Tim Thomas was just better than he
was.

By 2013, Luongo in a Canucks goalie had become stale. It was crystal clear that we weren't going to win a Cup with the current roster. We rebuilt on the fly for the next 3 years but the problem was we traded away both our goalies and Ryan Miller was only a viable starter in 2015.

The only thing I blame Luongo for is requesting a trade after the Winter Classic at BC Place. Your a team player, you do what's best for our team. Now he is costing us something now that he is retired.

Luongo was worth it but it is bittersweet to be curious what would have happened if Luongo wasn't traded back to Florida.

I think the frustrating thing about Luongo was the opening goal that he gave up against Boston in Game 7. It wasn't a hard shot just was redirected in and he never went to his knees. Not sure if that is was good or bad but that goal out of all of them seemed strange.

If the Canucks can make the Cup Finals before 2029, bonehead moves by Gillis will be forgotten but there are same days I wonder if we will ever see a four year stretch like we did from 2009 to 2012.