Luongo Dealt Back to Florida

After many trials and tribulations, snide remarks and speculations, the days of Roberto Luongo in Vancouver have unceremoniously come to an end on Tuesday, as he returns to the Florida Panthers

In undoubtedly the biggest move of the day, the Canucks were able to finally move Luongo, arguably unexpected or months too late, in a deal with prospect forward Steve Anthony, to the Florida Panthers for goaltender Jacob Markstrom and centre Shawn Matthias, with the guarantee that the Canucks would also eat 15% of Luongo's salary.

Luongo may not have been ranked as the best player in the hockey pool scoring standings to move in the last three or four days, but arguably, he is now the highest profile player to move.

This season, Luongo has registered 19 wins and 3 shutouts for 44 points in the hockey pool, which ranks him 74th in pool scoring overall.  By no means are these stellar numbers, but what he has lacked in numbers could very well coincide with the help he has been getting from his team in his starts.

In return, the Canucks get the "goalie of the future" from the Panthers in Markstrom, who was supposed to take the reins of the number one spot until Tim Thomas was signed, then moved to the minors to continue his development.  They also get a centre in Matthias, who has had a lot of time in the bottom six roles in Florida, but may still have some top six upside, if called upon.

In terms of the hockey pool, this does provide an interesting wrinkle into some thinking, especially since Luongo has been dealt to a lesser team in Florida and in a situation where starts are not necessarily guaranteed either, sharing time (for the foreseeable future) with Tim Thomas.  Chris has relied upon Luongo for some points this season, albeit not as many as expected, but this could mean less for him in the standings, which could hurt his 3rd place standing, going into Tuesday night's action.

If you're on this site and you know me personally, you would know that this deal should have some profound reasoning... and it does.  Nevertheless, as a hockey deal, the Canucks were able to snag a prospect goaltender that had a ton of upside and a centre that should be able to fill a role or two with the team immediately, maybe not the most offensive role, but a role nonetheless.  On the other hand, the Panthers are going to get a goaltender who is playing well and has a number of years left in his career and possibly some of his better days still ahead of him.

I think, for the most part, the Canucks have removed some question marks from their side, which I believe has burdened the team for too long.  It's a fragile psyche there and removing the shades of doubt is a huge positive.  I also think that the return was fair, in terms of the timing of the deal, the youth of the players coming back and also feel that there could be, even if it is a longer shot, an upside for this year or what is left of it.