Roberto Luongo's NHL journey
 

Roberto Luongo's NHL journey

 

The Vancouver Sun documents the meteoric rise of the Vancouver Canucks' goaltender from his junior days

 
June 21, 2012
 
 
 
Roberto Luongo is born on April 4, 1979 in Montreal. Growing up, Roberto Luongo idolizes Edmonton Oilers star goalie Grant Fuhr, who helped backstop to five Stanley Cup titles.
 

Roberto Luongo is born on April 4, 1979 in Montreal. Growing up, Roberto Luongo idolizes Edmonton Oilers star goalie Grant Fuhr, who helped backstop to five Stanley Cup titles.

Photograph by: -, PNG

 
Roberto Luongo is born on April 4, 1979 in Montreal. Growing up, Roberto Luongo idolizes Edmonton Oilers star goalie Grant Fuhr, who helped backstop to five Stanley Cup titles.
Young Roberto Luongo holds a trophy in this 1993 photo.
Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo on the day in June 1997 in Pittsburgh when he was drafted by the New York Islanders. Mother and father Lina and Tony, his brothers Fabio (L) and Leo (green).
In June 1997: Roberto Luongo is drafted in the NHL Entry Draft’s first round, fourth overall, by the New York Islanders. In the 1997-1998 season, Roberto Luongo backstops his Val d’Or Foreurs to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey championship and a Memorial Cup tournament appearance.
1999: Roberto Luongo is named goaltender of the tournament at the world junior hockey championship as Canada takes the silver medal. 1998-99: Traded to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Luongo leads his new team to the Memorial Cup tournament. 1999: Roberto Luongo makes his NHL debut on Nov. 28, stopping 43 shots in a 2–1 win against the Boston Bruins.
2003-04: Roberto Luongo, in his fourth season with the Florida Panthers, earns his first Vezina Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award nominations as the top goaltender and top player as selected by the players, respectively.
2000: On NHL Entry Draft Day — June 24 — Roberto Luongo is the major piece of a trade to the Florida Panthers, as Islanders general manager elects to spend the first overall draft pick on goalie Rick DiPietro. With that move, it is now DiPietro, and not Luongo, who is the highest-drafted goalie ever.
2003 and 2004: Roberto Luongo wins gold with Canada at the world hockey championship. Roberto Luongo is a backup to Martin Brodeur at the World Cup of hockey, where Canada wins gold.
2006: On the day before the NHL Entry Draft — June 23 — Roberto Luongo is traded to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for (among others) power forward Todd Bertuzzi. It would come to be regarded as one of the worst trades in NHL history, as Luongo goes on to star for Vancouver while Bertuzzi’s stint in Florida is uneventful.
2006: Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo takes the time to sign some autographs at the end of the thrid day of training camp in Vernon, B.C.
October 2006: Roberto Luongo records his first win in his debut as a Canuck (3–1 over the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 5) and his first shutout on Oct. 25 with a 5-0 blanking of the Chicago Blackhawks.
2006-07: Roberto Luongo caps a Canucks franchise-record season of 105 points and a Northwest Division title with a finalist’s nomination for three NHL awards — the Vezina Trophy, Lester B. Pearson Award and Hart Memorial Trophy as the league MVP.
2006: Roberto Luongo is a backup to Martin Brodeur for Team Canada at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
2007-08: Roberto Luongo and the Canucks miss the NHL playoffs for the first — and only time — during his tenure. Still, he is voted in as the 2008 NHL All-Star Game's Western Conference starting goalie for the second straight season.
2008: In November, Roberto Luongo begins a shutout streak that lasts three games, totalling 242:36 minutes, that ends in a 2–1 shootout loss against the Colorado Avalanche, surpassing the Canucks record he set the previous season.
2008: Roberto Luongo in September is named the Vancouver Canucks’ captain, becoming only the seventh goaltender in NHL history to be named a captain, and the first since Bill Durnan captained the Montreal Canadiens in 1947–48 (after whom the league implemented a rule forbidding goaltenders as on-ice captains). While Luongo has a small ‘C’ painted on his mask, he does not serve an on-ice captain and does not wear the captain's ‘C’ on his jersey.
2008-09: The Vancouver Canucks win their second Northwest Division title in three seasons, but fall to the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round of the playoffs. Roberto Luongo comes under fierce criticism after the Game 6 elimination game, in which he allows seven goals in a 7-5 loss.
2009: In September, the Vancouver Canucks announce they have signed Roberto Luongo to a 12-year contract extension worth $64 million. On Oct. 25, Roberto Luongo posts his 21st shutout as a Canuck (48th career) in a 2–0 win over the Edmonton Oilers, surpassing Kirk McLean as the franchise shutouts leader.
2010: The Vancouver Canucks again win the Northwest Division title, but fall yet again to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games in the second round of the playoffs. Roberto Luongo again faces criticism after surrounding 21 goals in the six games, including five in the deciding sixth game.
2010: In February, Roberto Luongo backstops Team Canada to the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He had taken over the No. 1 goaltending position from Martin Brodeur, who lost 5-3 to the United States in a preliminary round game.
2010: During the off-season, the Vancouver Canucks dismiss Roberto Luongo’s goaltending coach Ian Clark, replacing him with Roland Melanson. September 2010: Roberto Luongo steps down as team captain after two seasons, and the Vancouver Canucks name NHL MVP Hart Trophy winner Henrik Sedin as his replacement.
2011: Roberto Luongo records his 300th NHL career win on March 5, becoming the sixth-youngest goaltender to reach the milestone and the 25th overall. Still, the 2010–11 season sees a decreased workload for Luongo, as he appears in 60 games while rookie backup netminder Cory Schneider assumes some of the load. Luongo is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top netminder for the third time in his career.
2011: The Vancouver Canucks, winner of the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regular season team with a franchise-record 117 points, make it to the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Boston Bruins in seven games. Roberto Luongo, who was pulled out of Games 4 and 5 in the first round against the Chicago Blackhawks before the Canucks clinched that series, is again on the hot seat in the Cup final. He is pulled out of the net in Games 4 and 6 in Boston, both one-sided losses, and loses Game 7 by a 4-0 score. After Game 5, with the Canucks leading the series 3-2, Luongo mildly complains about how he’s treated, vis a vis Bruins goalie Tim Thomas. ‘I've been pumping his tires ever since the series started and I haven't heard one nice thing he had to say about me, so that's the way it is,’ says Luongo, who would come to regret his comments.
2011-12: Roberto Luongo, battling mild injuries and a dip in performance, sees Cory Schneider shoulder more of the Vancouver Canucks’ goaltending burden. Luongo in January passes Kirk McLean as the winningest goalie in the franchise’s history with his 212th victory as a Canuck. Appearing in 55 games in 2011–12, Luongo has 31 wins, 14 losses and eight overtime or shootout losses with a 2.41 goals-against average, .919 save percentage and five shutouts.
2012: In the NHL post-season, Roberto Luongo is in net as the Vancouver Canucks lose the first two games of their first-round series against the visiting Los Angeles Kings. That’s it for Luongo in the playoffs, as Cory Schneider goes between the pipes for the Canucks’ eventual five-game elimination at the hands of the Kings, who will go on to win the Stanley Cup. In the wake of the Canucks’ playoff exit, Luongo reveals he won’t totally oppose any trade from the team by invoking the no-trade clause in his contract.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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