You mean 4 year deal right?

Personally, I can't believe how what he said was blown out of proportion. Idiotic fans on CDC and the media that spins this shit.

I partially agree with what hondaracer said, this is what kills goalies/players here. I mean, I know professionals shouldn't be affected by stupid things like this but when every single word you say is constantly being scrutinized and you're constantly having to explain yourself, I can see how a player would want to go somewhere where they can just focus on playing the game.

I could be completely wrong but those are just my thoughts on the subject.

What are you talking about? Despite all the media & fan criticisms, the Sedins have continuously progressed throughout the years and to this day would like to remain in Vancouver.

Kesler incurred media & fan criticisms earlier in his career and persevered through it and is flourishing. If paid fairly, would like to continue as a Canuck. SC contender or not.

Linden never did anything wrong, but Play Off contender or not, would never sell out the team. And trust me, this guy deserves a cup just as much as Luongo does.

Bure doesn't really count. It was a management issue in addition to management planting false rumours in an effort to gain leverage for contract negotiations. I would fault management over fanfare.

I think this is just a Luongo thing. Just because he's elite, people hold him immune to anything.

Exactly.

I read about his comments on here and brushed them off. Fans and the media in this city need to chill the fuck out.

And it's really quite simple to solve the Lu issue. He's due for a pay hike so give him the money he wants and he'll be in Vancouver for another 5 years, don't give him what he wants and he'll be playing for a different team.

Don't blame the fans or media on Bure because they had nothing to do with it. Canucks management treated him like shit ever since he got drafted.

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago, where he said he was glad to move to Florida, where he wouldn't be hounded by the fans.
And that he was getting tired of the spot like playing in Vancouver, so something like that.

If anything, I would conclude its never the fans or the media that is the deciding factor whether a player stays or goes. The thought otherwise is just silly IMO.

If anything, I think it's the hockey politics we're not privy of, that's what drives a player to stay or go.

***Like we managment mishandled Bure.
***How Quinn mishandled Gretzky
***Sometimes differences with coaches or the team's direction.

If anything one can be certain of is it's not the organization as it's doing its level best to convince Luongo to stay.

***Like loaning the Aquilini private jet to accomodate Luongo and Gina during the pregnancy
***Despite NHL regulations, granting Luongo the C as captain
***Willing to Grossly overpay Sundin ($20 mil for 2 yrs) to build a contender team.

I never knew Aquilini's owned a private jet......

The fans were always behind Pavel and the media tried to make him look like the bad guy when he demanded his trade. Quinn and the Canucks did countless things to try to rip off Bure and treated him like garbage. What the media tried to do to Bure was insignificant compared to what the team tried to pull on him.

Naslund says hello. I'm fairly certain the fans/media had at least some part in his declining play. Obviously, you can't exactly tell with any player.

Personally, I don't care if Luongo does want to leave, so long as we can trade him for something good. If he ends up walking for nothing, then I'd be pissed.

Naslund wasn't offered an extension. I think he wanted to stay but didn't expect that the Sundin signing would take as long as it did.

I do agree that media heat takes its toll. But I'd gather that his want for departure lies more on politics. I think he disagreed with the defensive direction of the team and his continued decline in role. His game basically didn't match the way AV ran the team and was hoping Sundin would change our focus back to an offensive one.

I seriously think people need to get a grip a little if people think it's fans who are the deciding factor for a player. If I remember correctly, despite how the story is told, Roy didn't quit on Montreal fans, but it was his differences with his coach who left him hung to dry. Habs was having a bad game and Roy won an SC on his tenure as an Avalanche. Fans would have placed him back on a pedestal had the coach didn't let his differences with Roy get on the way, Roy perhaps may have provided the Habs with another SC or 2.

So would you rather have Luongo tell you the truth or tell you what you want to hear?

He said he wants to sign with a winner. How is that surprising? If we suck, he won't wanna sign here.. well no shit!

Lets put it this way. We're always a Play off team, but we're never really Stanley Cup favourites. Does that mean our team is undeserving of any high calibre players on that note alone?

I'm glad we have Schneider and lets hope he's ready to play at the NHL level if Lu does ever decide to leave.

too many bandwagoners in vancouver

Well all I'm saying is everybody is over reacting. So Lu doesn't have the best PR skills. He didn't say anything different than what any superstar really thinks.

Every team's in the same situation with UFA star players. Take the Cavs. Cleveland can't control what LBJ's gonna do in 2010. They can only control how they build their team. They can be like the Thrashers and then hope Kovalchuk doesn't really wanna be a winner when he's UFA. Or they can be like the Lakers and build a winner and give every reason for Kobe to re-sign.

the canucks are giving every reason for Lu to stay
fact of the matter is, the real winner are the ones that will take less to play for a contender...
say..Marian Hossa this year with the wings...

we wont know until his contract is really up
but after what Lu said...dont count on hearing an extension any time soon

And Hossa seems to be enjoying his time with the wings as he is willing to take a cut or give a discount just to stay with the wings... I mean who wouldn't want to play with datsyuk/zett/lids/raf/etc.

I hope they don't sign Franzen and we can snatch him up... haha.. that guy is a beast!

Franzen and Bouwmeester!@#!@

If Luongo does decide to leave or don't sign an extension, I hope he lets MG know so he can atleast help us out and trade him for a prospect or 2. I don't want to see him leave but if he's no longer happy then what can we do...

:werd:

He is not due for a pay hike!

His deal pays him $6 million in the first year, $6.5 million in the second year, $7 million in the third year, and $7.5 million in the final year.

How many goalies do you know that have won the cup making his kind of money??

I'm not bothered by his comments - but if he's making the kind of money he is right now and wants to continue to make this kind of money, in today's salary cap era where the cap is more likely than not going to get lower next year and the following year, he's going to make if difficult on himself to sign with a contender- if Luongo wants to signs with the team that gives him the best chance to win the stanley cup and he wants to cash in financially - he will stay in Vancouver. The only way he could potentially sign with a cup contender is to do what Hossa did and take less cash.

Let's not worry about this right now people! We have a cup drive to worry about this year!! Let's just say Canucks make a deep cup drive this year...

You know Detrioit will only go as far as Osbad or Conklin let them...and the Sharks are having more closed door team meetings than practises these days..

As for the media, Morrison was on team1040 yesterday and he said something along the lines of -
Here in Vancouver there was constant scrutiny and in Anahiem it was like ; "they have hockey reporters in Califorina? What really??" Ask a Canadian hockey player if he wants it when he's in a non-hockey market and he'll tell ya...of couse personality plays a role..but come on..if you cant handle the heat get the hell outta the kitchen....your making $ x,xxx,xxx.00 of dollars....

Well if he only signed because of the money, then he should be happy no matter where he's playing, as long as they give him the money.

He's stated, however, that his first priority is winning the Cup. Obviously he wouldn't have signed that deal in the first place if he didn't think he had a shot here - he could just as easily have let his existing contract run out the year and then signed somewhere else.

And there's no reason to think he's talking about anything different now - if, by the time his contract is up, he doesn't think this team looks like a contender, or if it looks like they aren't close to building a contender, he'll probably want to look elsewhere.

It's really not all that complicated.

Right... on top of the year he already had left on his Panthers contract when he came here.

LUONGO'S NOT PACKING ANY BAGS

DALLAS — Short of getting tattoos of fir trees and Vancouver’s Olympic rings — although the latter would surely get him sued by Vanoc for copyright infringement — Roberto Luongo couldn’t have been any more passionate Monday about his fondness for our city.

Loves Vancouver, he said. Loves his Vancouver Canuck teammates, loves the National Hockey League organization and loves its fans.

Never did the star goalie sound like George Bailey pledging to “shake the dust of this crummy little town off my feet” and go elsewhere. Even the RCMP’s taser cowboys couldn’t misunderstand him.

But Luongo won’t pledge ever-lasting devotion to the Canucks beyond his contract’s expiration 15 months from now. From the day three years ago when he arrived and asked former Vancouver GM Dave Nonis one question — “Do you want to win?” — the success of his team has been Luongo’s criteria for everything.

Nothing changed Saturday when, during a Hockey Night in Canada interview, Luongo said: “First and foremost, I want to win the Cup. And whichever team is going to give me the best chance to do that is the team I want to be with.”

The quote incubated peacefully for a day until regular radio programming returned Monday in need of a topic to carry hours of chatter.

Is Luongo disloyal? Is he unhappy?

“Of course not,” he said. “I like our team here. I think we can do some damage in the playoffs. How that could be interpreted as me leaving, I don’t know.

“I think we have a team with a chance to win the Cup. At the end of the day, the only thing that’s going to enter my mind for the [contract] decision is winning. That’s why I play. I’ve played 10 years in this league and haven’t had much success. I think I’m deserving of having a chance to win the Cup, and hopefully that comes with Vancouver.”

This wasn’t news to Canuck general manager Mike Gillis, who said: “He made it clear to me from the outset that he feels, like we all do, that we’ll be defined by winning a championship and nothing short of that.”

Luongo said he hasn’t thought about his next contract. He can’t sign an extension before July 1 and doesn’t know what he’ll do if the Canucks want to negotiate one this summer.

“I’ll have to sit down with my agent after the season and discuss that, but I really can’t answer it,” he said. “There are more important things to worry about, possibly a chance to compete for the Cup. That’s all I can ask for.”

http://www.vancouversun.com/Sports/I...131/story.html

He came here as a RFA and signed a 4 year deal so this is the 3rd year into the deal with only next season remaining.