Canucks ink Luongo for 12 years and $64M
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 2, 2009 | 3:49 PM ET
CBC Sports
Roberto Luongo uses his stick to hit the puck into his glove while facing the Carolina Hurricanes during NHL action in Vancouver last February. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)The Vancouver Canucks have reached a 12-year contract extension with star goalie Roberto Luongo.
The extension announced Wednesday is worth $64 million and includes a no-trade clause. Luongo, 30, is heading into the final season of a four-year, $27-million-US contract.
"It was a clear decision for me and my family," Luongo said during a conference call. "We love Vancouver and I think the organization has handled us really well and gives us a chance to win.
"So I'm really ecstatic and I was really thankful for Canucks management and [general manager] Mike Gillis that they had the confidence in me to give me this type of contract."
Luongo posted a 33-13 record with a 2.34 goals-against average and nine shutouts in 54 appearances last season, stopping 92 per cent of the shots he faced.
He missed nearly two months of action due to a groin injury.
Vezina contender
The Montreal native has 47 shutouts in 544 career appearances over nine NHL seasons with the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers and the Canucks.
That ties him with Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks for third in shutouts among active goaltenders.
He has twice been a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender (2004, 2007).
"Roberto Luongo is the leader of our hockey team. He is in the prime of his playing career and has a tremendous desire to make the Canucks a championship team," Gillis said in a release.
"His leadership, competitiveness and character are what this team will represent for many years to come.”
Luongo said he was encouraged by the moves the team has made since getting knocked out in the second round of the playoffs. Gillis re-signed offensive leaders Daniel and Henrik Sedin, and acquired forward Mikael Samuelsson and defencemen Christian Ehrhoff, Brad Lukowich and Mathieu Schneider.
"I think we have a great offence, and obviously we've added more pieces on defence to what was already a good defence," said Luongo. "[But] to win a Stanley Cup takes more than a good team. Everything's got to fall together at the right time and we've got to be playing our best at the right time."
Luongo's deal, negotiated by agent Gilles Lupien, resembles the decade-plus pacts signed by the likes of Marian Hossa and Henrik Zetterberg, with money front-loaded toward the beginning of the term.
Luongo said he genuinely believes he could still be playing by the end of the deal.
Vancouver acquired Luongo in the summer of 2006, in a six-player deal with Florida that saw Todd Bertuzzi head the other way.
It has been an eventful summer for Luongo. He recently attended orientation camp in Calgary as he bids to play on Canada's Olympic squad for a second straight time, and was honoured with the renaming of Roberto Luongo Arena in the borough of St-Leonard where he grew up.
