Luongo bails on retirement, re-joins Panthers

This just in courtesy of Florida Panthers insider George Richards, legendary goaltender Roberto Luongo is expected to re-join the franchise in an advisory role just four months after he retired from professional hockey.

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UPDATE:  

The Panthers have now officially confirmed the news with a public press release.

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“I’ve had the honor and privilege to work with Roberto during his time playing for the Panthers and am proud to welcome him to our franchise’s hockey operations staff,” said general manager Dale Tallon in the press release. “Roberto always approached every game with an unmatched work ethic and we are confident he will take to this new role with the same passion. A cornerstone player in our franchise’s history, we are thrilled that ‘Lu’ will have a hand in shaping our franchise’s future.”

The 40 year old Luongo wrapped up his 19 season NHL career this past summer, a career that included 11 seasons with the Panthers. With rumors swirling all season though that the Panthers had their sights set on pending unrestricted free agent Sergei Bobrovsky, there simply wasn't room on the Panthers' roster for Luongo. Luongo announced his retirement literally just days before the Panthers signed Bobrovsky to a historic seven year, $70 million contract worth a cool $10 million per season. Due to the nature of Luongo's contract and the NHL's cap recapture penalties he costs the Panthers just over $1 million per season for the next three seasons, while also costing the Vancouver Canucks a whopping $3 million against the cap for the next three seasons.

Luongo owns several Panthers franchise records including: games played by a goaltender (572), wins (230), shutouts (38), saves (16,068) assists/points (13), single-season games played by a goaltender (75, 2005-06), single-season wins (35, 2005-06, 2015-16), single-season saves (2,303) and single-season shutouts (tied-7, 2003-04). Incredible. 

Luongo ended his NHL playing career ranking second in NHL history in games played by a goaltender (1,044), third in wins (489) and ninth in shutouts (77). He is of only three goaltenders in NHL history to have played 1,000 NHL games.

Luongo was also a three-time finalist for the Vezina Trophy (2003-04, 2006-07, 2010-11), a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy (2006-07) and was a finalist for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (2017-18).