Idea of Moving Luongo Shortsighted

After watching Vancouver play stout defense in front of All-Star goalie Roberto Luongo during a sweep of St. Louis in the first round, more was expected. The Canucks looked like a team committed to playing strong in their zone, and they knew if they could keep lanes clear for Luongo and make the extra effort to get to rebounds, they could go far.

It all blew up on them in the second round. A younger, faster, exceptionally determined Chicago team took out the Canucks in six games, and they scored 21 goals to do it. It's got some in Vancouver wondering about Luongo's future, which is the last thing that should be up in the air now.

With nothing but good intentions in mind, I would think, the Vancouver Sun's Cam Cole has broached the idea of moving Luongo this offseason, and he tries to make a strong case for such a thought.

... there are plenty of ways to skin a cat in today's NHL that do not involve tying up $8 million in the goaltending position. And most of the successful teams out there in playoff land have found the way. That's not to say they wouldn't love to have a franchise goaltender, but the question is: At what point does cost exceed benefit?

While "thinking outside the box" should never be frowned upon, this is just not a good idea.

The crux of Cole's case is that guys like Nikolai Khabibulin and Marc-Andre Fleury are not paid like franchise players. That's simply not true. Khabibulin is in the final year of a four-year, $27 million deal he got after the lockout. The Blackhawks put him in waivers in September, but decided to keep him around. Fleury, meanwhile, will be making over $5 million each of the next four seasons.

While Cole is correct that Jonas Hiller isn't paid like a franchise guy in Anaheim, Jean-Sebastien Giguere certainly is, and he's still on the team. The Ducks are tying a significant amount of cap space up for a goalie they aren't even using, which to me is not a sound blueprint to follow when building a team.

The Canucks have a lot of decisions to make this offseason. They have $31 million or so tied up in 11 players for next season, but key free agents like Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Mats Sundin, and Mattias Ohlund.

With three big-time forwards possibly gone, Vancouver will need to use some cap space to take care of that problem, as well as hoping that young guns like Mason Raymond continue to develop into top-line players.

In the meantime, it's probably not a good idea to get rid of a potential MVP candidate who may be the best hope your franchise has to return to the playoffs next spring.