Saturday 19 January 2013

Stirring the Pot: Goaltending Duo

With rumors still swirling, I figured I may as well add to the speculation of what will happen to poor Roberto.

Situation 1: Roberto is traded to _____ ASAP. Schneider takes the starter roll, presumably backed by the currently injured Eddie Lack.

 - With this, the Canucks gain a substantial amount of cap space. The trade has the option to bring in a temporary relief for Kesler, a decent bottom 6 forward, a high draft pick, or any combination of those.
But this brings a number of problems to the table, the biggest being that Schneider has never played a full season. 
 - If Schneider is pushed into that roll, he could crack under the pressure and become as useless as Rick DiPietro. The second problem is that Eddie Lack, who would take up the backup position when he recovered from his groin injury, has never played an NHL game. Simply: trading Luongo forces 2 goalies who are good at their level into unfamiliar territory, and could be a disaster.
 - At the same time, a good veteran backup for Schneider could be obtained through that trade, but the market for veteran backups has gotten smaller in recent years.


 Situation 2: Roberto is kept until the season ends, Schneider splits the games with Roberto.
 - My money goes on this scenario. It gives the Canucks 2 expert goaltenders, a massive advantage going into a compressed, travel-heavy schedule. I can't think of another team off of the top of my head that has 2 top tier goalies.
 - One of the biggest problems with this is that Luongo's trade value decreases with every year, and getting something of value for him in a trade is only going to be harder. 

Situation 3: Luongo stays, Schneider is traded.

 - Riots, AV and Gillis chased out of town by fans with torches and pitchforks. 

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