It's well known that the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks don't care for each other very much, which is a why a tweet by Columbus Dispatch reporter Aaron Portzline tying the 'Hawks to goalie Roberto Luongo raised plenty of eyebrows on Sunday night. The emergence of Cory Schneider in Vancouver has made the 33-year old Luongo expendable, and Chicago is thought to be one team with enough cap flexibility to handle the contract of the handsomely paid goalie.
A quick trip to Cap Geek shows that Luongo's contract is sort of insane, though. Would the 'Hawks really be interested in keeping the goalie on the payroll until the -- gasp -- 2021-2022 season?
Luongo's cap hit for the 2012-2013 is $5.33 million, which the Blackhawks would seem to be in a good position to cover. NBC blog Pro Hockey Talk has Chicago with $8.23 million in cap space with few free agents pending. What's really scary is the length of Luongo's deal. He'll be paid $6.7 million in salary through 2017-2018. For an aging goaltender already starting to decline, that has to be a distressing proposition for any team.
Luongo went 31-14-8 last season with a 2.41 goals against average and a save percentage of .919. The Florida Panthers may also be interested in the goalie.
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