The Vancouver Canucks have traded goaltender Roberto Luongo back to the Florida Panthers where he spent five seasons earlier in his NHL career. In return, the Canucks get goaltender Jacob Markstrom and center Shawn Matthias.
This season, Luongo has a record of 19-16-6 with a 2.38 GAA and a .917 save percentage with three shutouts.
Over the past month, Eddie Lack has been seeing a lot of time in goal for head coach John Tortorella including Sunday’s Heritage Classic game against the Ottawa Senators. Many felt there was no reason why Luongo should not have been in goal for the nationally televised outdoor game. The Senators went on to defeat the Canucks, 4-2.
Luongo was one of the big stories last year when Corey Schneider was in town. The two shared a similar goaltending contraversy and it was said that Luongo would be the man chased out of Vancouver. That was not the case as Schneider was sent to the New Jersey Devils.
With Luongo gone, Lack will now be the no. 1 man for Tortorella on a team that may not be done dealing. Daniel Sedin is now dealing with an injury and rumors continue to swirl about Ryan Kesler also wanting out of Vancouver.