Schneider trade ‘floored’ Luongo
VANCOUVER— He will be at the Vancouver Canucks training camp next month, but Roberto Luongo made it clear in his first interview since the stunning trade of fellow goalie Cory Schneider that he was shocked not to be consulted beforehand about the deal.
Luongo said he was informed about the trade by Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini, who showed up at his Florida home literally minutes before the June 30 deal was announced at the NHL draft in Newark, N.J.
“He (Aquilini) called me in the morning,” Luongo said. “He was in Florida and asked if he could come visit me, so I was like, ‘yeah, no problem.’ I thought he just wanted to talk to me about my future and stuff like that. He showed up about three or four picks into the draft.
“So he sits on my couch and asks me to turn the TV off. I was like OK, I was watching the draft, so I turned it off and we started talking and all of a sudden he tells me that Schneids has been traded. As he is telling me this, my phone starts blowing up at the same time. It was perfect timing. I was kind of floored, to be honest with you. Out of all the situations that I had envisioned that could possibly happen to me, that wasn’t one of them.”
Luongo made the comments in a pre-taped interview at his Florida home with TSN anchor James Duthie, which was broadcast on Friday.
Luongo said he couldn’t really remember what his initial reaction was to the news.
“I don’t remember, I just kind of blacked out after that,” he said. “I don’t remember much.”
Luongo said he will be at the Canucks’ training camp and is ready to play.
“Yeah, no doubt. I mean I have a contract,” he said. “I plan to honour it. I think there is a lot at stake for me this year. First and foremost, I want to re-establish myself as one of the top goalies in the league.”
But Luongo made it clear that he still hasn’t fully come to grips with the trade and said he was surprised he was not consulted about it beforehand.
“I wasn’t angry, I was just shocked mostly, I was just trying to figure out the reasons, why a decision like that would be made especially without consulting me,” he said. “That is a pretty big move to make without having input from the guy you are going to put your trust in.”
Luongo agreed with Duthie’s comparison of his situation to a divorce. He had emotionally cut the cord with the Canucks, expecting he was the one who would be dealt. Instead, Schneider was sent to New Jersey for the ninth overall pick in the draft, which the Canucks used to selected centre Bo Horvat.
“I use that (divorce) analogy all the time,” Luongo said. “That is what it felt like, I accepted it and was fine with it and I had moved on personally. The only problem is she wanted me back.”
Asked specifically if he had come to grips with his situation, Luongo said: “Well, I am still working on that part ... I’m there, I am ready to go. I have been training hard and turned the corner. I think I have made a lot of good steps.”
Luongo did not answer directly when asked if he still wanted to be traded.
“I don’t have a crystal ball. I don’t know what is going to happen down the road,” he said. “Wherever I am, I am going to be 100 per cent committed to play. Right now, I am in Vancouver. I am 100 per cent committed to that.”
Luongo also said he explored the idea of attempting to void his contract.
“I was ready to walk away from it and sign somewhere else for a lesser term and less money,” he said.
Luongo has nine years remaining on the 12-year, $64-million deal he signed with the Canucks.
Luongo insisted he never used his no-movement clause to reject any tentative deals the Canucks and general manager Mike Gillis had for him.
“I never turned down a trade,” he said. “I think it was one or two days before last year’s (2012) draft, Mike just told me there were two or three teams that were interested. He said ‘interested.’ He never said I have a trade for this team or this team. All I said to Mike was, ‘Mike, if you could try to do something with either Florida or Tampa, I would appreciate that. And if doesn’t work out, then we’ll move on’ ... there was never a trade on the table that I turned down.”
Luongo is headed to Calgary for the Team Canada Olympic orientation camp that begins Sunday. Undoubtedly, he will face more questions there.