TL;DR: Stats say Luongo is awesome. Judging him on a per game or even per month basis is useless. His averages over the last three years are as good or better than everyone else.
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Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp
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Did all the words scare you? If you want it as one giant block of text, I can do that too.
Spoiler!
I'm doing a little research for a blog post but basically, this is what I've found. Using the past 3 years as a sample size (since these are the years that Luongo has come under the most scrutiny)... Luongo has posted the 2nd highest average wins per year (37...Kipper is #1 with 39 but also plays, on average, *13* more games than Luongo per season...therefore he loses more games than Lu per season....25 to 16). Luongo has the third lowest GAA in that time (Thomas -> Brodeur -> Luongo) but keep in mind that Luongo has averaged more games per year than both. Thomas' numbers are the best (2.18) mostly because of his wicked season last year but the year before, he was under .500 with a 2.56. Brodeur has a 2.33 to Lu's 2.36 but Brodeur was also under .500 last year with a 2.45. Luongo on the other hand, had a 2.56 in '09-10 but still posted 40 wins. His worst statistical year was when he was limited to 54 games in '08-09 but still won 33 of them with a 2.34 and NINE shutouts. On the basis of Luongo's consistency but Brodeur and Thomas' superior numbers, I'd call this a wash between the three. Put this together with the fact that he is the 7th highest paid goalie. He does NOT make $10m. He makes $6.716 this year with a $5.33m cap hit. In the NHL world where billionaires pay the salaries, cap hit is the only number that matters. The numbers seem to back up that Luongo has been one of the best, most consistent goalies in the league since he's joined the Canucks (I'd include past 3 years but that would require more math and his first three years were just as good) and how Luongo Haters are crazy. If you're wondering if anyone is a better value...I didn't bother with most of them but the only other goalies worth looking at outside the top-10 cap hits are Pekka Rinne and Jonathan Quick. Rinne at $3.4m has averaged 31 wins a season while Quick is a bargain at $1.8m and 31 wins as well. However, that's 6 fewer wins than Luongo and while Rinne only averages one more loss per season, Quick averages 21 losses per season to Luongo's 16. Still think he's overpaid? Feel free to refute my points. Seriously...if I've overlooked something here, I'd love to hear it so I can look into it further.
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Originally Posted by b0unce. [?]
trade lu for future considerations.
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I'd agree because Schneider seems to be awesome and costs way less but Lu is proven (hasn't won fewer than 35 games per season apart from the one season he was injured all the time and he won 33) while Schneider hasn't even had a starting job yet. If that was even a possibility, that would free up close to $4.5m in cap space to pursue a trade for a top-6 forward or top-4 defenseman.