More on Luongo, and Big News with Pronger and Brind'Amour

On the eve of the NHL draft, the Vancouver Canucks have traded Todd Bertuzzi, Bryan Allen and Alexander Auld to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Roberto Luongo and Lukas Krajicek. Rumors of Vancouver moving Bertuzzi for Luongo had been circulating this week, but it comes as a surprise that they also gave up Bryan Allen and Auld. This was a tough offer for the Wings to beat, the approximate equivalent of a Datsyuk, Osgood, Lebda trade. I would not have liked that if Holland had gone that far. Both Bertuzzi and Luongo will be UFA's next summer, so I'd have a hard time giving as much up as the Canucks did. Jes Golbez agrees with me. Also, check out the Vancouver Canucks Op Ed reaction here and Mirtle's reaction here. And if there was a Florida Panthers blog I could link to, and this non-existent blog had a reaction, it would be linked here. Someone start a Panthers blog or drop a link, eh? The one thing I like about the deal is that Bryan Allen is going to be in the Eastern Conference. If you remember, he was the player who broke Zetterberg's leg with a dirty slash and caused Derian Hatcher's torn ACL off incidental contact. Good riddance, you punk. Bertuzzi being in the Eastern Conference is also great. If I was a Colorado Avalanche fan, I would be very worried with Luongo joining the Northwest Division. But the Wings only face the Canucks four times during the regular season, so it isn't as big of an issue for us, until the playoffs at least. It looks like the Wings will have to go after Giguere now, as A2Y says. A shocking report out of Edmonton. Chris Pronger has asked the Oilers for a trade, after he helped lead them to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The reasons are based on "personal, family considerations." Granted, some are saying Al Strachan has a hand in this rumor, so take it with a grain of salt. Oilers GM Kevin Lowe reacts:

"I think they're more rumblings than anything. I'm pretty focused on the draft right now I don't want to get too much into player personnel stuff."

On whether Pronger has said anything to him:

"He hasn't asked me. I'll just leave it at that...We just got over a seven-game series in the Stanley Cup finals and there seems to be a lot of discussion about this and I'm not sure where it's coming from. Let's put it this way. Why would we want to trade Chris Pronger? One thing I've learned in my five or six years as a manager is that stuff tends to out of right field for whatever reasons. It can be agendas, hidden agendas, certain motivations, so nothing surprises me."

You've heard it first, here. I'm going to start a rumor and say Chris Pronger will become a Red Wing and his $6.25 million salary will be offset when Nick Lidstrom signs for $1 million in reaction, Paul Kariya style! It's a great dream, anyways. Oh, I'd also like to mention that the Canes signed Rod Brind'Amour to a five year deal. It's a bit surprising to me to see them lock Brind'Amour, 36 in August, up for such a lengthy deal. He is the captain and all, but I would've signed him for three years max if I was the Canes GM. Update (24. Jun, 12:01 AM, Matt): In spite of this trade, Ansar Khan still won't let go of the idea of Luongo in the Winged Wheel, posting the following to his blog tonight:

Well, is it too soon to start writing about how the Red Wings need to sign Roberto Luongo as a free agent in 2007?

Ansar, the Canucks are going to sign him in the next couple days. Okay? I'm sorry. Khan wraps up the post with comments on possible Plan B's such as Biron, Raycroft, Giguere, Aebischer, Gerber, Roloson, etc, etc. Guess we'll just have to wait and see which one of them, if any, it'll be. -- Matt