In the end, Luongo and Lupien demanded the Panthers publicly state their intentions of not trading him until a no-trade clause could be written into his contract, that they hire his goalie coach from Montreal and re-sign backup goalie Jamie McLennan.
What was next? Was Luongo going to ask the Panthers to bring in someone to separate his green M&M’s from the rest of the bag?
This is a situation that a team never wants to be presented with, but the Panthers had three options:
- Sign Luongo to a one-year deal (or offer arbitration). They get his services for one more run and then he costs a zillion dollars or gets the same zillion from someone else while the Panthers get no compensation.
- Sign Luongo to a multi-year deal meeting all of his ridiculous demands. They risk losing the rest of the players because they don’t get an M&M sorter, and if things go wrong in the first few months Luongo demands a trade, anyway, and they get little for him (the other teams knowing the Panthers are between a rock and a hard place).
- Trade him now and get as much as possible for him. They get Bertuzzi, a solid d-man, and a goalie with numbers very similar to Luongo’s. All the while, the Canucks get the headache of trying to sign him or wind up losing him for nothing (well, losing him, Bertuzzi, Allen, and Auld for a decent, young defensemen in Lucas Krajicek).
The fact that Panthers fans aren’t crying bloody murder at this deal suggests that it wasn’t too bad. Part of that is the absolute shock of the deal — not that it was coming, but considering who all was involved. Mostly, though, it’s going to be a wait-and-see deal. The Panthers will hopefully look to free agency to bring in another goaltender, but Auld looks very solid and probably could serve as a starting goaltender for 60 games.
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