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People are sure going overboard on Lui's departure to be. The guy is just another goalie in the league,nothing more. He still is a good goalie but we also have a good goalie to replace him. This is nothing like when the Habs had to trade Roy who was a legend already in the game. Luongo is just one of a dozen or so top goalies in the league he is not the end all of this team.

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Before I go further, I will say that I was and more or less still am in favour of keeping him in Vancouver. I'm hoping that after the lockout that all Luongo haters will have time to forget his miserable performances and take time to recall what he has done for this team. The man has elevated the franchise to levels winning levels that Canuck nation could only dream of .......

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Guest Dasein

The firing of Brian Burke and Dave Nonis replacing him is interesting because Vancouver went through a similar path:

Under Burke, Vancouver built an elite contending team with a win-now mentality behind the WCE, but lacked the crucial goaltending to go far in the playoffs. We chose not to sign him in 2004, and Dave Nonis took over.

Two significant things happened under Dave Nonis - in 2004, with his first-ever draft pick, in hopes to address our goaltending needs for the future, Nonis chose Cory Schneider. The lockout in 2004-2005 bought him a year, and 2005-2006 was the coming out party of the Sedins who took over from Naslund. But with Schneider not ready, we were still missing goaltending.

To address the issue, Nonis managed to pull off the greatest trade of his career in the summer of 2006 to get Roberto Luongo. Luongo was sensational, and practically carried the team as far as the 2nd round of playoffs the next year.

Fast forward to the present, we are now sitting with a 33-year-old franchise goaltender with a life-binding contract in Roberto Luongo, and his 26-year-old protege in Cory Schneider, who is finally ready to become a franchise goaltender 8 years after Nonis drafted him.

Gillis has in his hands two products that Nonis left behind - a proven star in Roberto Luongo, and Nonis's first pick and budding star in Cory Schneider. He has to eventually trade one of them.

Now let's look at the Toronto Maple Leafs:

Under Brian Burke, they were a mediocre team looking to make the playoffs. He makes some significant moves such as getting Dion Phaneuf and Jake Gardiner, and some questionable moves such as getting Komisarek, Connolly and trading for Phil Kessel for Tyler Seguin, Dougie Hamilton and Jared Knight (essentially). Amist all these moves, goaltending was a constant issue and mediocre at best. Toronto failed to make the playoffs in Burke's tenure.

Brian Burke was fired today as a consequence, and Dave Nonis has taken over. If history is to repeat itself, Nonis will look to address the common theme in the Brian-Burke-inherited teams - atrocious goaltending (with exception to Anaheim, who had Giguere and Hiller).

I think Nonis will first assess the talent he has on his team. He will start the season with Reimer and Scrivens, for as much as people rip on them, they are young talents who could have improved over the summer. With goaltending suspect, if Toronto manages to win, he will stall until they start to lose due to bad goaltending. If 4 or 5 games into the season, Toronto is losing because of bad goaltending, Nonis will quickly look to get a proven goaltender.

Will Nonis trade for Roberto Luongo a second time? Or will Nonis pay a little more to get his 1st ever pick and a younger goaltender in Cory Schneider (he is the same age Luongo was when he first came to Vancouver)?

Could Vancouver's luxury and Nonis' needs be a match?

The one benefit Vancouver has in a lockout-induced short season is this: no team can fall behind the 8-ball early in the season. It is a sprint to the finish line and teams need to win right away and can't manage to have a losing record 10 games into the season. That means a lot of teams with suspect goaltending that get behind the 8-ball will look to stabilize their net condition. I believe we should hold onto both until a team gets real desperate at the beginning of the season.

I think Nonis will make a hard push for Roberto or Cory when the Leafs start to lose due to suspect goaltending. I hope we do not make a trade with Toronto, because they don't have many pieces that could help us. Rather, I hope we trade Schneider to the Islanders for Frans Nielson, either De Haan or Hamonic and a draft pick.

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Philly is now interested in Lou.

So now it is Toronto with Gardiner and Kadri being talked about Florida with Bugstad and Philly now.

I think Simmonds or Couterier or Read and a high pick would be needed.

Philly has way to many good right wingers...

The price for Lou just went up, the price for Cory would be same plus a first round pick but it won't happen, Lou is gone.

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So we are supposed to just forget his meltdowns in multiple playoff appearances? Yes he has helped elevate the franchise, (along with a few others that were just entering their prime), IN THE REGULAR SEASON. Every October we entered a new season with this mantra you encourage, that we just had to forget the previous Spring meltdown and think about all the great regular season games he's played for us, and that THIS YEAR it would be different. Sorry been there, done that....over and over. I for one will be breathing a sigh of relief when he's out of here. Just the thought of trading Schneider and keeping Luongo and looking ahead to this years playoffs would send me into a spiral of depression.

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:) Looks like my crystal ball is working fine! Flyers will look into Lou :)

Trade value just went up :) Flyers have some players that would look great in Van....forwards but the kind of players we want!

Maybe somebody in TO knew this would happen.... Had Burke offered something with 'any' value he would have Lou at a cheaper price. Now that other teams with holes between the pipes (thanks to the buyout)...Lou looks a little more expensive! Maybe his stubborn attitude backfired... maybe the decision makers want Lou and Burke doesn't want to give into MG?

- Not in our conference

- multiple players that would look great alongside Kes

- even one player that has chemistry with the Sedins

- they are DESPERATE for a #1 keeper

- NO guilt! I would cheer for Lou and his team and mean it....

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In a short season where it is a sprint to the finish, is there a problem with keeping two number one goalies? I think that Luongo is a proven number one goalie. He was one win from greatness. If the refs hadn't robbed us of the Stanley Cup against the Bruins, he would have been one of the few goalies to win an Olympic gold medal and the Stanley Cup. I do not see many other goalies with those creds. I love Schneids, but he has not proven it over a full season yet, and we are going to put him in as number one with no proven backup? Unlikely. If Schneider gets hurt, we are done, period.

Gillis is fishing for a home run, and if someone is going to pony up one, he will jump on it. Right now he is in the driver's seat. Keep them both, and we have insurance against an injury or a goalie melt down. If by the trade deadline, Schneids is locked down as number one, I am sure we can trade Lou for some value to Philly, Florida, or Chicago if they are on the bubble.

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You are one of those haters I was talking about. You've seemed to have forgotten quickly how Luongo practically carried the team to the second round in his first season all by himself. He nearly upset the Ducks all by himself. And in the SCF, you have forgotten that while he wasn't so spectacular in Game 7, he was still the single best player in the 15 wins we did get. He shut down the Hawks in game 7, despite blundering in 4 and 5, stuck it to the Sharks in game 5, and was first star every time we beat the Bruins. And please don't tell me you've forgotten Olympic gold. What was the difference between the preliminary game we lost to the Americans and the final game when we beat the Americans? Luongo!

I'm not a hater as someone once suggested. Rather, I just want the team to make the best decision. If you trade Luongo, you better command the hghest price possible for the length of his contract and what he can bring to a team. I know he wants to go to Florida, but they don't seem to have enough to trade for him.

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