Bertuzzi's a Panther, Luongo's a Canuck

Todd Bertuzzi is heading for sunshine, the Canucks traded him to Florida today, receiving Roberto Luongo in return.

Also heading to Florida are Bryan Allen and Alex Auld, Lukas Krajicek and a sixth round pick in the 2006 draft come to Vancouver to finish off the moving parts.

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Is this finally the great goaltender that the Canucks have needed to lead them to Stanley?

Who do you think won the deal?

They’ll miss Bertuzzi’s presence on the forward lines, but to be truthful he has certainly underperformed in the last year, the change will probably do him a lot of good.

If Luongo can step up and take them to the next step then they’ve won the deal, but it will take a bit of time.

Wonder what they do with Cloutier now?

The other question is , how will Todd get along with Mike K. Do they really deserve each other? His presence on the ice with the Canucks was not being appreciated for sometime now and can he really step it up a notch?

Bertuzzi has stated publicly in the past that Iron Mike gets a lot of the credit in turning his career around.  In fact, Bert is one of the few Canucks that talk fondly of the Kennan era.

The biggest question, in my opinion, is whether or not Nonis can get Luongo to sign a long-term deal.  If he can’t and Luongo walks next summer, than Florida wins this trade hands down.  However, if Luongo signs a monster deal in Vancouver and is around for some time, then I think it’s a fair trade.  You gotta give up something, to get something and that’s what happened here.

As for Clouthier, if you didn’t believe it with the Noronen comments at the end of the season, the writing on the wall should be painfully obvious now.  No team is going to sit on a $2.5 million back-up.  The only real question is what kind of value he will bring.  Sure someone will be interested, but it might be just a low round pick that comes back for him.

I would look for another Canucks trade to happen before the weekend is over.  I still think it will involve the Canucks moving up in the draft, but regardless of what returns I would expect another piece of the “core” to be moved before the draft is over.

They could have traded away Morrison, Jovonovski, Allen, and Cloutier for one dude for all I care… Bert’s gone… and I’m crushed  :cry: :cry: :cry:

Bert had to go.  They cant leave the team like this now though.  More trades or free agent signings are needed.  Luongo is great but there is a big hole in the offense now.

Well they might as well trade Nazzy away too… I’m sure he’s not too happy about the move either.

You might just see that, Naslund was particularly close to Bertuzzi so it’s not beyond belief that he too won’t be traded. Cloutier for sure will be moved, his 2.5 million dollar contract is too high for a back up. Jovanovski was rumoured to be looking to return to his Florida homestead and Keenan would probably like to have him too.

Interstingly enough there’s a story out there that Chris Pronger has asked to be traded by the Oilers, it will never happen cause their in the same division, but Pronger in Vancouver would be a nice fit.

At any rate it seems that, your Vancouver Canucks in September are going to be a totally different looking team than the one that finished the 2005-06 season. Nonis may not have wanted to “blow the team up” but he’s sure set in place the dominoes to start toppling… 

There will also be a new assistant coaching staff too, as Vigneault fired 3 of them today as well.

A shame, went all through school with Jack McIlhargey. The guy had spirit. Even was a Flyer during the Broadstreet bully days.
I remember cheering him as a Canuck defenseman, not much skill, but if you carried the puck he’d hammer you flat. Buzzed around the ice like an angry wasp!

It has been long rumoured that Bertuzzi wanted a fresh start after the whole Steve Moore debacle. Nonis confirmed that today as he said that Bertuzzi had indicated that he would like to go somewhere new if possible. Seeing as Bert and Nazzy are such good buddies, Im sure that Nazzy has known for a long time that Bert was moving on. He should be prepared to deal with that. Its not like they’re shipping Naslunds wife across the continent. Naslund will be fine.Â

I’m not sure that I like so much tinkering with Vancouver. Brian Burke and Marc Crawford brought some much needed stability to the team after the post- Quinn/Mike Keenan era. The team is played incredibly well for the past few years. Even this year, although they missed the playoffs, was a good year. When the Canucks went to the finals in '94 they were one game over .500 and had 85 pts. This year they had 42 wins and 92 pts., their 5th consecutive 90 pt season. I feel that this team just needed a boost, not a re-building. I am excited though at getting Luongo. He has put up great numbers on a mediocre team. We’ll see what else that Nonis can pull out of his ass.

I think the canucks got the better deal, Im happy bertuzzi is gone and we got a good goalie in the deal.The new nhl is back to a fast paced style of game.The next good move is we need a real leader on the team and I think van should try get burnaby joe home and let nasland go and dan cloutier.

I don’t think Bertuzzi can have two bad seasons in a row.  And really…was his season really THAT bad?  25 goals and 71 points?  Vancouver is gonna kick themselves in the nads if he plays like he did in the past.  With him playing in Florida, they may only see him once (if that) next season with the NFL-style schedule the League has taken on.

I was surprised that they dealt Auld.  Now they are going to have go out and deal for a back-up goalie, because you know damn well that Cloutier isn’t sticking around to play 25 games this year.  I heard Toronto is a possibility for him.  Something to bridge the gap between Belfour and the Pogge/Rask tandem.

They are far from done I’m sure, as are a few teams in the league.  Should be an interesting night.

We’ll with the pace of the new style of game, Im sure Vancouver got the better trade… Im a huge Bertuzzi Fan, but this will lift his career big time, being out of the Canadian Market and in the states where fans dont put as much pressure and media hype for the whole moore incident. We all know even with a shitty team Luongo stands his ground, having 40-60 saves a game, Can’t stop them all… But with a Solid D core like Van has. Jovo(MUST BE SIGNED) Salo, Ohlund, Baumgartner, Carney, Weinrich. We have solid D, Allen was a good D man and it sucks hes gone but oh well… and with Mika Norrinin and Luongo its money… We can pick up another winger for Naslund and Morrison, anyone can fit into that line, you could put Brookbank in there and produce,

Calgary just picked up Taungay from the Avs for Leopold. Wicked trade!

Next year will be good and I like the steps Nonis and Van are taking we finally got a goalie, Even thou cloutier played good, I was thinkin about now Cloutier can play 40-50 games not 60-70 games before playoffs and auld was a wicked backup with experiance, but now wow, Get rid of 2.5 from cloutier the Allen, Auld you know we can sign Luongo long term and get Jovo back and then another Key Forward and we’re set. Plus if the Twins and Carter play like they did we got the best 1-2 punch in the leauge plus a defence that is amazing when healthy and Now a Goaltender that can Help us alot… I can honestly predict Van to get Far next year and not have to be called a idiot.

Dave Nonis doesn’t feel the same way about no-trade clauses as Brian Burke did.  Because of that Nazzy the only current Canuck with a no-trade clause.  Doesn’t mean he can’t be traded, just makes it much more difficult for it to happen.  A more likely scenario is that Nazzy will step up the “I want to go home to Sweden” talk now that Bert is gone.

Mika Norronen is pegged to be the back-up this season.  The writing is on the wall for Cloutier and his $2.5 million in salary.  He may be hard to move, but he will be moved.  As far as Auld goes, he was likely a key to deal.  Chances are Florida wanted nothing to do with Clouthier and his contract in the context of this trade.  Florida likely wanted a goalie in return, but had to be competent and cheap.

Jovanovski will still be hard for the Canucks to re-sign.  While walking in the grey area of the league anti-tampering rules Florida’s ownership group has indicated that they are willing to offer the maximum to Jovo.  The Canucks just can’t afford that.  Even at a contract similar to Bertuzzi’s, Nonis will have trouble making the numbers work.  Luongo will command at least $6mil (based on what he has already turned down), both Sedins are in line for hefty increases along with Anson Carter (who may play the Free Agent market, driving up the price).  On top of that only Nazzy, Ohlund, Salo, Clouthier, Morrison and Cooke are under contract for next season.  Even factoring in a conservative 10% increase to get everyone else signed, the Canucks are very close to the proposed $44mil Cap. 

Oh, and as for Weinrich and Carney, I wouldn’t count on either being back in Canucks uniforms next season.  Weinrich sounds more and more like a player who has retired everytime he says anything.  Carney, like Linden will have to take a paycut to be back.  The problem is, being on the open market he may find another team that is willing to pay him more.

:laughing:good news…canucks have a goalie…canucks don’t have clouts…canucks need to sign carter now… then sign sykora…