I gotta tell you–I’ve been pretty pleased with GM Dave Nonis’s off-season activities. First he acquires a great goalie, a strong defenceman and now he dispenses with our gimped, above-average-but-not-fantastic goalie:
Vancouver Canucks Senior Vice-President and General Manager Dave Nonis announced today that the Vancouver Canucks have acquired a 2007 2nd round draft pick and a 2009 pick (to be determined) in NHL Entry Draft from Los Angeles in exchange for Dan Cloutier.
A second round draft pick ain’t chopped liver, either. I would have given him away and thrown in some leftover Bertuzzi bobbleheads.
Consider the goalies who have played in and left Vancouver in the last decade: Hirsch, Potvin, Burke, McLean, Brochu, Essensa, Fountain, Hedburg, Irbe, Snow, Weekes, Auld, Cloutier and Schwab. Sheesh.
If the Canucks newsgroup’s math is correct (and it rarely is), that leaves roughly $4 million to fill out the roster with four players. The team needs at least one scoring right-winger–hopefully they can get somebody who can score 20-25 goals for $2 million or less.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
I saw an interview with Nonis and Luongo last night. Nonis was very matter of fact about the Cloutier situation, but gave nothing away with regards to trading him. He didn’t position it that the Canucks needed to offload him, but that he couldn’t see Cloutier at a club where he’s not starting goalie. I thought he handled it very well.
Luongo seems to have a good attitude (I’ve never heard him being interviewed before) but it troubles me that he doesn’t have a beard. I thought that was part of the NHL uniform.
BTW, I like the changes made to the NHL logo after the lockout season, esp the change of direction of the letters.
Given the past record of some of the goaltenders once they’ve left Vancouver (Irbe, Burke, Weekes and Potvin), look for Cloutier to improve dramatically with L.A. 😉
Well, Cloutier wasn’t all THAT bad…he just developed (and maybe rightfully so) a reputation for underperforming in the important games. Neither the players nor the fans could trust him, so he had to go.
I expect that he probably will have a good (regular) season for LA, and no one should be too surprised by it.