Actually... there was. It wasn't long, but there was.Topper wrote:FUUUUUCKIsland Nucklehead wrote:Gillis painted himself into this corner last offseason. He preached patience, while putting his team perilously close to the cap the entire time. He thought teams would give up assets to land Luongo, and instead traded (in his opinion) his better goalie for a package that was reportedly not the best on the table.
There was no offseason to do a deal for Luongo. When the hell are people going to get it through their thick skulls and into their pea brains.
We all understood it while it happened but now most have completely forgotten.
With the looming lockout there were no takers until the new CBA was know. Once the CBA was done, there was no time at the start of the season to do a deal. Both 'tenders had seesaw years and hence both where kept around as insurance of one vs the other.
Depending on who you believe, Toronto Sun had Luongo rejecting trades to Toronto and Chicago, holding out for Florida. Some said Florida's ownership would take on Luongo's contract, but the Canucks wanted too much.
There were rumours at the draft last year that Luke Schenn was offered for Luongo. Or the Kadri++ rumours.
Either way, Topper, there WAS an offseason last year. The lockout DID affect Luongo's trade value. Mike Gillis WAS left holding the bag when everything went against the Canucks in the new CBA. He's done a decent job of managing that (trading HIS franchise goalie for a top-10 pick).
Here's how I see it:
Gillis wanted a TON for Lou (can't fault him, but he probably misread the goalie market), CBA worked against him (can't fault him), couldn't give Lou away at the deadline (can't fault him), and traded away the future franchise goalie for a top-10 pick (we'll see).