Roberto Luongo's career may be over. (Not April Fools)

A sad and stunning report.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Roberto Luongo's career may be over. (Not April Fools)
Charles Trainor Jr/Miami Herald

The career of one of the National Hockey League's most beloved figures may already be at an end. 

On Saturday night during the weekly headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Nick Kypreos made some rather shocking comments. In a report that seemingly came completely out of left field Kypreos revealed that the injuries that have been racking up on the body of beloved National Hockey League goaltender Roberto Luongo have now put his career in jeopardy. Although Kypreos comments were not firm, they were certainly very damning and left little doubt as to where he thinks this is headed.

“Growing speculation that Roberto Luongo’s health may cost him playing in the National Hockey League in the future,” Kypreos said during the Headlines segment on Saturday night. “Now, the good news, I guess, when it comes to the contract is, if that’s the case, he’ll go to training camp, fail his physical and that will force him to go to the long-term injured reserve. He would get the remainder of his three-year contract and there’s no recapture penalties to the Florida Panthers and, more importantly, to the Vancouver Canucks.”

While it's great news that Luongo ending his career on long term injured reserve, as opposed to eventually just retiring, would allow both the Florida Panthers and the Vancouver Canucks to avoid potentially severe cap penalties, the fact that he would be forced to end his career earlier than he would have liked is certainly not good news. Luongo has become one of the most universally loved and respected figures in the entire league during his career and I have little doubt that his long time fans would much prefer to see him end his career on his own terms then save a few cap dollars over the course of a few seasons. 

That being said though it seems like the Florida Panthers may have had some inclination of this possibility for a while now and looking back in retrospect it makes all the sense in the world. The Panthers have been heavily linked to Columbus Blue Jackets star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky as of late and they are expected to make a huge push to acquire him as a free agent this summer, a move that does not make all that much sense when you've already got Luongo under contract. Kypreos acknowledged as much and pointed to this very scenario as more evidence that not all is well with Luongo.

“What coincides, I think, with the Luongo news is Sergei Bobrovsky,” said Kypreos. “There’s talk that they (Panthers) may take a real healthy run at him, and certainly they’re gonna need him if Luongo does shut it down.”

So how soon could we see Luongo step away from the game entirely? Well according to the staff at Sportsnet it sounds like we may have already seen Luongo play in his last ever game in the National Hockey League. The staff made it clear that his retirement could come as early as the start of next season, which would make all the sense in the world if the Panthers did land Bobrovsky. 

From Sportsnet:

Though it’s probably not the way he wants it to come, the end of Roberto Luongo’s playing career could be approaching as soon as next season.

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