My own thoughts:
1. Luongo will be in camp. By the time camp starts it will be like this “weighing my options” thing never happened. Luongo will realize he is now #1 and part of a very good team and will want to play well to make Team Canada for the Olympics. Getting paid $6.7m is another good reason to show up. Some may think this will have a big impact on his play but I don’t think it will. I think after the first few weeks of the season Luongo will get back into the rhythm of starting 60+ games and we’ll quickly forget that Schneider is gone.
2. On my reading of the CBA if the Canucks and Luongo both truly wanted to part ways I believe Luongo could not show up, the Canucks could suspend him and then terminate his contract and Luongo could go on his merry way to sign elsewhere. The NHL might be less than thrilled but I don’t think they’d pitch a huge hissy fit. I don’t see this as cap circumvention (ironically his actual contract IS cap circumvention in my mind). However I don’t see the contract getting cancelled for two reasons. First, $6.7m is a lot of money. Sure Luongo would love to be play elsewhere but that is a lot of money to give up to have that wish become a reality. More importantly the NHLPA would freakout if Luongo allowed his contract to be cancelled. The BEST thing that NHL players have currently is guaranteed money! Sign a contract and so long as you don’t retire you are guaranteed to get paid every single dime (or at least get bought out)! Compare how the Islanders had to pay DiPietro an insane amount to get rid of him to the Indianapolis Colts cutting Peyton Manning and not having to pay him a dime! The NHLPA would be very upset if Luongo seriously raised the idea of walking away because then every underperforming player would be encouraged to do the same which would reduce the Player compensation as a whole.
12 team H-2-H 1 year league, daily roster changes, 3 goalie start minimum/week
2xC, 2xRW, 2xLW, 4xD, 3xUtil, 2xG, 5 Bench
G, A, P, PIM, PPP, SHP, GWG, SOG, Hits, W, SV%, GAA, SVs
C: C. Keller, C. Mittelstadt, B. Nelson, R. Strome,
LW: K. Connor, B. Tkachuk, J. Gaudreau, J. Marchessault, E. Rodrigues, A. Lafreniere
RW: K. Fiala, J. Bratt, T. Jeannot V. Arvidsson
D: R. Josi, J. Trouba, E. Gustafsson,
G: L. Thompson, F. Gustavsson, V. Vanecek
NO IR