[goo3]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

Hondaracer, if we traded away Lu for say 5 first round picks and brought up Schnider, with the additional 7M in cap space, you don't think we can sign one or 2 players that would make a difference on the current team? Even if we only got 3 first round picks, that is a lot of potenital players that will could keep the team very competitive for years to come.

Look at Cam Ward. His stanley cup wins came with him as a rookie who had shown how good he could be in the world juniors. LAst year and this past year, Osgood was only making $1.45M and $1.1M respectively.

AHL => NHL starter is a big gap. Carolina fluked out with Ward that year. Don't forget that Gerber was their starter all season until Ward got hot in the playoffs. Young goalies take a few years to become consistently good (ie Ward, Price, Fleury) so it's a bit much to throw Schneider into the fire and expect anything better than even *laugh* Huet. Any trade involving Luongo needs a starter in return.

Let's see, one mental slip in game 5 against the ducks let Scott Neidimeyer score from the blue line with a simple dump in.
Oh wait, 7 goals against the hawks?

Luongo's been in the playoffs twice. Both those examples are from both his elimination games. That's pretty selective memory!

2007: He won the Dallas series hands down. I believe the God-mode term came out around this time. That Anaheim game was double OT, and he stopped like 50 shots. He had an incredible year.

2009: He got picked apart in an important game and never stole any games that mattered. He had a solid year, esp in the regular season and 1st round, but not great. He quietly posted ~8 shutouts somehow even w/ the injury.

Or maybe he isn't as good as everyone thinks he is. Positionally he is sound, and he does have a reputation that would make every average player grip their sticks just a little harder trying to pick those corners, but we have seen that he is weak playing the puck, not as strong in the shoot outs.

I think everybody can pretty much agree his last 2 yrs haven't been up to his superhuman standards. But I find some of his critics to be the 'grass is greener' and the 'what have you done for me lately' impulsive types when they don't see Michael Jordan hilite reel-type of perfection. For sure he's got holes in his game that need improvement. And he needs to up his playoff performance back to 2007 levels. But 'overrated' means either he's not an elite goalie or ppl's expectations (only in Vancouver) have nothing to do with real life.