Canucks Legend Roberto Luongo exposes Detroit Red Wings major attempt to snatch him from Vancouver

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Cooper Godin
November 15, 2024 (9:52)

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Former Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo recently shared which team offer-sheeted him back in 2006 following his trade to the British Columbia club.

In 2006, the Vancouver Canucks made a huge splash on the trade market, acquiring 1997 fourth-overall pick Roberto Luongo from the Florida Panthers in exchange for a package that included Todd Bertuzzi.

But the Vancouver Canucks weren't the only team interested in Luongo's services, as the netminder revealed on a recent episode of the Spittin' Chiclets podcast.

Roberto Luongo says the Detroit Red Wings offer-sheeted him

While on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast this week, Roberto Luongo shared that the Detroit Red Wings issued him an offer-sheet after being traded to the Vancouver Canucks. At the time of the trade, Luongo didn't have a contract, making an offer sheet possible.

Luongo told Paul Bissonnette, Ryan Whitney and Keith Yandle that it was a pretty quick decision in saying no to the Red Wings' offer sheet. He wanted to be with the Vancouver Canucks and not go to another organization.

"The funny part about that and I don't know if anybody knows this, but when I was traded to Van, I didn't have a signed contract yet. I actually got offer-sheeted by Detroit. I didn't accept it though." Luongo said.

When asked if the salary Detroit offered was more than Vancouver, he added, "Yeah. I didn't know at the time that it would've been more."

"Yeah, it was a pretty quick no. I just got traded to Van, I wanted to be there. I didn't wanna like go to another team."

It's a good thing that Roberto Luongo didn't accept Detroit's offer-sheet. If he did, who knows how the Vancouver Canucks would've performed down the line, especially from 2008 to 2013 when they won five consecutive Northwest Division titles.

If Luongo went to Detroit, there's a very good chance that he would've won a Stanley Cup, much quicker than he did as an executive with Florida this year. But it's great to see that he wanted to be in Vancouver and to help the organization in any way possible.