- TSN: Craig Custance of ESPN reported that Canucks GM Mike Gillis reached out to Capitals GM George McPhee to let him know that it wasn’t his intention to cause a distraction involving Roberto Luongo and the Capitals. McPhee said: “That’s a first-class thing to do.”
- Bob McKenzie via twitter: The Capitals haven’t spoken with the Canucks about Luongo and have no appetite to do so. The Capitals wouldn’t entertain a contract like Luongo’s. Though their goaltending hasn’t been sharp, they will ride it out with Neuvirth and Holtby for now. McKenzie notes that the Canucks aren’t going to trade Cory Schneider.
- Ben Kuzma via twitter: Luongo on Gillis being in Washington: “I really don’t have any comment about it. Mike hasn’t approached me with anything in regards to that I’m not going to speculate. I don’t want it to be a distraction. It will only hurt my game and my teammates.”
- Craig Custance of ESPN: Luongo to the Capitals has been shot down by several people, but a sources see’s the Capitals as a good landing spot for Luongo.
“I could see that as a fit. You need a veteran guy and the young goalies need to learn from him,” said an NHL source. “Both young goalies are pretty good but it’s hard to win with a young goaltender.”
“It would be an upgrade,” said the source of Luongo in Washington. “As much as he’s been criticized, he is a pretty good goalie. He’s a veteran guy who knows how to prepare.”
This type of trade would be easier to do for the Capitals than adding a scoring winger and top 4 defenseman if Dmitry Orlov is going to be out a long period of time. It is still in the best interest for the Canucks to trade Luongo this season, getting the best possible return for him. In the meantime, they get the benefit of being able to send out one of two, high-end goalies every game.
- Brad Ziemer of the Vancouver Sun: Cory Schneider’s agent, Mike Liut:
“Our concern is we were hoping that this would be the year that Cory would play 75 per cent of the games,” Liut said in a phone interview Monday from his Michigan office.
“We are only interested in resolution, we are not going to get into the finger-pointing game and to that end you have to take a step back and you have to give them latitude to make a business decision.”
“Is Roberto going to be there all year?” Liut said. “It’s certainly looking like he’s going to be or both will be there until the (April 3) trade deadline. What happens after that, we’ll have to react to that. But my concern is in the obvious, we have a 48-game season and you’ve got two goalies of their stature.”
“It was within the realm of possibility for a variety of reasons, one of which is trading a player of Roberto’s stature is never an easy trade because of the consideration of what you are expecting to come back,” Liut said Monday.
“He’s an elite player in the league. Then there’s another layer with his contract and yet another layer with the new collective bargaining agreement … It’s just not an easy contract to trade. I think it’s doable, but it isn’t an easy trade. So am I surprised? I am too pragmatic to be surprised. I kind of subscribe to the best laid plans (go awry) adage, you know.”
“If they are both there for the entire season, and it’s a 48-game season, and Roberto plays 40 games, that’s a disaster,” Liut said. “That’s an extreme and I don’t think that’s going to happen, but certainly the sooner the better.
“Vancouver has a decision to make with their goaltending, everybody knows that. We don’t need to add more to it than that. Everyone wants it resolved and if it can get resolved that will be better for everybody.”