Add Cory Schneider into the “retire his number” camp when it comes to how the Vancouver Canucks should honour Roberto Luongo.
Last season, the Canucks announced their plans to add Luongo to their Ring of Honour, a step below jersey retirement, and this week, they set the date of that ceremony for December 14th when the Florida Panthers are in town.
Debate has raged on since the original announcement as to whether or not the Canucks should instead retire Luongo’s number one, and his former goaltending partner is firmly in favour of the highest honour going to Luongo. In an
“I’m the biggest Roberto supporter int he world, I can’t speak highly enough of him,” Schneider said on Thursday’s episode of Sekeres and Price. “For me, I think his number should be retired. I understand the debate though, you know he wasn’t here as long as maybe some of the other guys who do have their numbers retired. but I think the peak he played at for as long as he played it here… I kind of compare it to a guy like Pavel Bure who may not have been there forever but his peak was the absolute peak and not many guys come through organizations like that. You know, Bure, Stan Smyl, Linden, the twins, I would hold Roberto in that echelon of player that came from the organization. It wasn’t like he had three good years and four bad years, he had seven or eight really good years there. Obviously Kirk McLean is in the mix, but Roberto is probably the best goalie to have ever played there. In my mind, if not him, then who? I understand the debate that maybe it wasn’t quite enough of a long enough run here to consider him a retired number, but I would if it was up to me.”
Currently, the Canucks have retired the jerseys of Stan Smyl, Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden, Markus Naslund, Pavel Bure along with Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Luongo is set to become the eighth player inducted into the Canucks’ Ring of Honour. The Canucks’ Ring of Honour inside Rogers Arena currently features Orland Kurtenbach, Kirk McLean, Thomas Gradin, Harold Snepsts, Pat Quinn, Mattias Ohlund, and Alex Burrows.
Luongo — whose first-ballot Hockey Hall of Fame induction alongside the Sedin twins was celebrated by the Canucks last season — is the franchise’s all-time leader in both wins (252) and shutouts with 38. Luongo also has the best save percentage and goals against average among any Canucks goaltender with a minimum of 100 games played.
Schneider and Luongo won the William M. Jennings trophy together in 2011 for allowing the fewest goals against in the regular season. Schneider, 37, announced his retirement from pro hockey earlier this week.
Watch the full clip from Schneider below!