News Article: Luongo Thought He Would Be A Leaf

[colchar]

Do we really need to discuss any of this again?

Well since there was a belief that he didn't want to come to Toronto and in this article he openly says that he expected to become a Leaf, yeah we can discuss it.

 

[colchar]

I believed that us not dealing Luongo turned the page for the franchise. The John Ferguson regime would do that deal and set us back another decade. Things are looking up guys!

Nonis tried to do it, he was just smart enough not to pay Gillis' ever escalating asking price.

 

[colchar]

If I remember correctly, the last asking price for Luongo to the Leafs was a 2nd rounder and Scrievens, and Norris said no.

It came to that at one point but previously Gillis had kept upping his asking price.

I am happy with our situation now but kind of wish we had traded Scrivens and a 2nd (or pair of 2nds) for Luongo just to see the reactions from all the Canucks fans who were claiming that we would have to trade Kessel, Phaneuf, Gardiner, Lupul, JVR, Reimer, Kulemin, Franson, each of their first born children, and a decade's worth of first rounders in exchange for Luongo. Watching them melt down or backpedal trying to rationalize the small return would have been comedy gold.

 

[MuchoMacho]

Glad the trade didn't materialize, that contract..... unbelievable. Was it Nonis or Gillis that signed him to it?

It was Gillis, definitely not Nonis.

 

[Confucius]

Lucky we didn't get him, where would we be with his 909.sv%? Maybe 2 & 12?

 

[indigobuffalo]

I dunno... Still think Luongo is a championship/Vezina deserving goaltender.

Definitely do not think the price was fair at Kadri++ but I would be perfectly happy with Frattin+Scrivens for Luongo instead of Bernier.

Although if that was the case, it would make Reimer expendable. There has to be some sort of trade available to send Reims to Edmonton for one of their "superstars".

I just can't think of what player we'd want to get from them at this point...

Lupul and JVR are the only two players that are "comparable" to what we'd be getting in a Hall or Eberle, except that Lupes and JVR play a stronger, more Carlyle game than those kids.

TBH, watching the last two Leafs-Oilers games, and seeing ZERO effort on the back-check from ALL the forwards...

I just am so glad to not be an Oiler fan right now.

That team is headed for another top 5 pick...

 

[rojac]

Definitely do not think the price was fair at Kadri++ but I would be perfectly happy with Frattin+Scrivens for Luongo instead of Bernier.

You'd have been happy with even less cap space to get players signed in the offseason? You'd be happy with the potential of a cap hit that would linger after the new goalie retires? To each his own.

 

[Jtabo]

Only thing I'm going to say on this topic is sometimes the best trades are the ones you DON'T make.

 

[EDDIE20*]

I'm very satisfied with our goaltending tandem. Younger, cheaper and only going to get better.

The fact Gillis couldn't give him away for a backup and some draft picks speaks volumes.

 

[nsleaf]

Funny how hindsight is 20/20.

 

[thewave]

actually it was two 2nds and scrivens. but nonis asked gillis to retain 1 mil and gillis refused which made the deal fall through.

A second and a third and Scrivens would have been fine tbh. We probably would have beat Boston with Lu.

Doesn't really matter now that we have a young and good tender.

 

[rojac]

Well since there was a belief that he didn't want to come to Toronto and in this article he openly says that he expected to become a Leaf, yeah we can discuss it.

Interesting interpretation. I read it as more that he figured he would be a Leaf, because they seemed to be the only ones interested in making a deal for him. And if he wanted out of Vancouver, then his only option might be Toronto. I don't think it disproves that if he had a choice he might not choose Toronto.

 

[bobbyflex]

actually it was two 2nds and scrivens. but nonis asked gillis to retain 1 mil and gillis refused which made the deal fall through.

there were three different rumours that surfaced regarding asking price:

one was something ridiculous like Frattin, Gardiner, and our 5th overall
the second rumour was Bozak, Kadri and a 2nd
the third rumour was the one you are referring to (Srivens + 2nd + salary retention).

the first one was obviously insane. Had to be either the 2nd or 3rd

 

[Hibachi]

It was well reported that it was Scrivens and both our second picks that Gilis wanted, and Nonis was asking him to retain some salary, which he flat out refused. This was the offer on the trade deadline, the one which they were talking about in the final seconds of it.

 

[Deebo]

If it wasn't for the cap recapture penalty rule added in the last CBA, I think he would have been a Leaf.

 

[ACC1224]

Guess this dispels the myth that Burke was fired for trying to trade for him.

 

[WHLfollower]

there were three different rumours that surfaced regarding asking price:

one was something ridiculous like Frattin, Gardiner, and our 5th overall
the second rumour was Bozak, Kadri and a 2nd
the third rumour was the one you are referring to (Srivens + 2nd + salary retention).

the first one was obviously insane. Had to be either the 2nd or 3rd

That what I heard also, but they were also asking about Clark MacArthur also. First and second both are ridiculously insane to obtain a bad contact and throwing out good players like KADRI. I was very happy we didn't get Lou and sad all the same time. I really like the guy by god he gets treated like garbage even though HE carried the team to the cup finals. Last year playoffs his own team was working against him.

 

[Jack Bauer]

there were three different rumours that surfaced regarding asking price:

one was something ridiculous like Frattin, Gardiner, and our 5th overall
the second rumour was Bozak, Kadri and a 2nd
the third rumour was the one you are referring to (Srivens + 2nd + salary retention).

the first one was obviously insane. Had to be either the 2nd or 3rd

They were all true, this thing didn't exactly play out over a weekend.

Vancouver's initial asking price pre-lockout was #1.

Vancouver's asking price immediately post-lockout was #2.

Vancouver's trade deadline price was #3.

None were anything near what Nonis' expectations were except #3 and that was only with Vancouver retaining salary which they refused to do.

 

[I Believe]

Things definately worked out for us in the end.

I can't trash Luongo though, love that guy. Great goalie, funny as hell and a genuinely classy guy.

 

[Chandrashekhar Limit]

Mike Gillis made the best move for the Leafs in the past year.

Oh and Price is gonna start for team Canada.

 

[Pi]

We dodged a bullet.

All the best to Luongo in Vancouver, he was very unselfish during the whole process.

That's the difference between the Leafs and the Canucks, I guess. We will never say "Reimer is our #1, we'll trade Bernier" or vice versa and not go through with it.

Canucks kept going on and on about Schneider being the future and ship him out of town.

 

[moonbal]

Never felt Luongo was a great goalie. Decent but not great.
And I didn't have the same confidence I had with Brodeur in the Olympics with strombone1.
Glad he's not here.

 

[Pinto]

I've always like Luongo, but I'm pretty happy the way things turned out.

 

[Clark4Ever]

I like Lou, and he deserves a hell of a lot better than the manner in which he was treated by the Canuckleheads organization, but we absolutely dodged a bullet.

 

[FelixPotvin29]

there were three different rumours that surfaced regarding asking price:

one was something ridiculous like Frattin, Gardiner, and our 5th overall
the second rumour was Bozak, Kadri and a 2nd
the third rumour was the one you are referring to (Srivens + 2nd + salary retention).

the first one was obviously insane. Had to be either the 2nd or 3rd

Funny thing is 90% of Canuck fans didn't think those offers were enough to acquire Luongo. Emphatically #2 and #3 were somewhere between "making them worse" and "insulting".

Bozak was redundant #3 center since they had Manny.
Kadri never would have survived playing for AV, playing too poor defensively and they had a comparable piece in their system.
A 2nd was a 2nd.
Even Gardiner wasn't enough to crack their D.

Price for Lu to Canuck fans included more valuable pieces off the Leafs (I.e. Kessel) and that's taking into account the "slight" negative effect of his contract. To think Schneider's price in their eyes was even higher.

Good times.