Luongo relinquishes captaincy
The Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo met with general manager Mike Gillis on Monday and agreed to relinquish the team’s captaincy.
Luongo was awarded the captaincy two years ago just before he signed a massive 12-year extension with the club. Although Luongo was not allowed to act as captain while on the ice because of National Hockey League rules he fulfilled the role of team leader off the ice.
The net-minder had a uncharacteristically poor season in 2009-10 leaving many experts to speculate that the roles of captain and starting goaltender were putting too much pressure on the Quebec native.
Luongo seemed to echo these sentiments when he addressed the media on Monday saying. “I think I can put something less on my plate. The less distractions as a goaltender (the better). It’s a weird position. You are on your own. You have to be focused all the time and thinking about your job.”
The decision to name Luongo captain seemed like a tactic to get the tender to re-sign with the club. Leaving the vast majority of the hockey world to scoff at the decision, because of Luongo’s inability to talk with the refs between whistles and keep the team motivated on the bench.
Nevertheless, with Luongo surrendering the captaincy it opens up speculation as to who is going to take over as the club’s next leader. The signs seem to point towards one of Henrik Sedin or Ryan Kesler. Both fit the mould of captain but in drastically different ways. Sedin will lead by example coming off an impressive 2009-10 campaign in which he was named the League’s most valuable player. Meanwhile Kesler is a hard-nosed, two-way centre that is likely to lead more vocally. Kesler may be considered the front-runner at the moment because he is a native English speaker and more available to the media on a regular basis. This type of accessibility, coupled with a contract that still has six years remaining certainly works in his favour.
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