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Patrick Johnston: Luongo was willing to go on LTIR to avoid recapture penalty, but Jim Benning never bothered to call


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Big picture, did it even matter?  What would have Benning done with the additional cap space?  He probably would have just locked the team into another bad long-term deal.  So maybe the recapture penalty saved us in reality.

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Actually, digging around - this isn't a new revelation.  It was reported on last year.

https://canucksarmy.com/news/report-canucks-rejected-opportunity-reacquire-roberto-luongo-ltir-purposes-panthers-before-retired-2019

 

Quote
When Roberto Luongo retired as a Florida Panther in June 2019, it triggered a $3.035 million cap recapture penalty against the Vancouver Canucks for signing him to a twelve-year extension in 2009. But according to Sportsnet 650’s Satiar Shah, Luongo’s career could’ve officially finished in a very different way.
 
Before Luongo announced his retirement, then-Panthers GM Dale Tallon offered the Canucks the opportunity to reacquire Luongo’s contract, allowing the team to place the Hall of Fame goaltender on LTIR instead and eventually finish his career in Vancouver.
The Canucks, then run by GM Jim Benning, turned the offer down.
 
“They gave the Canucks a chance to trade back the contract to do some LTIR stuff or whatever, they never did,” Shah said. “Ultimately, he ends up retiring.”

 

The only difference is that it didn't come out of the horse's mouth, but rather from media (which was presumed at the time to be speculation).

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29 minutes ago, Goalie29 said:

Big picture, did it even matter?  What would have Benning done with the additional cap space?  He probably would have just locked the team into another bad long-term deal.  So maybe the recapture penalty saved us in reality.

 

200w.gif

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I can 100% guarantee this is true. Luongo told me. He Dm'd me on Twitter after I commented on a post. He said " I wanted to go on LTIR my friend, but it wasn't my call. I even contacted the Canucks to see if they could have traded for me and put me on LTIR so they wouldn't have the penalty. I did all I could."

 

This made me look at Lu in a way better light, because like a lot of fans, I was choked about the recapture penalty thinking it was his fault. It was not!

 

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it makes a level of intuitive sense to me even if it's obviously dumb. 

 

a) cleaner. imagine the media and fan circus around bringing the contract back. 

 

b) the Benning group seemed to lack anything resembling a true capologist. the ltir option, while obviously providing the team with more options and money to spend, is also a more complicated calculation to manage in realtime all season long. 

 

c) could have simply been a non-starter for francesco. I have no particular reason to believe that's the case, but it wouldn't be surprising at all to me. 

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8 minutes ago, Devron said:

Fuck Toffoli, Shoulf have been Tanev anyways 😭

But we wouldn't have been able to sign superstar OEL!🕵️‍♀️

 

But this is "oldnews" (🥸).  Be glad we've got a *REAL* management team in place right now.  They're not perfect but I doubt they'll do anything remotely "Benning-like" move like this ("ran out of time" indeed)

Edited by NewbieCanuckFan
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10 minutes ago, tas said:

it makes a level of intuitive sense to me even if it's obviously dumb. 

 

a) cleaner. imagine the media and fan circus around bringing the contract back. 

 

b) the Benning group seemed to lack anything resembling a true capologist. the ltir option, while obviously providing the team with more options and money to spend, is also a more complicated calculation to manage in realtime all season long. 

 

c) could have simply been a non-starter for francesco. I have no particular reason to believe that's the case, but it wouldn't be surprising at all to me. 

It's C.

Benning was not great at his job, no doubt about it, but ownership has been proven to meddle in front office affairs more than any ownership should ideally be doing.

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8 minutes ago, SV. said:

It's C.

Benning was not great at his job, no doubt about it, but ownership has been proven to meddle in front office affairs more than any ownership should ideally be doing.

Why would ownership be against this move?  Won't insurance be on the hook for Luongo's salary if he's on LITR?  When has ownership refused to spend money?  Certainly not when Benning had to get approval for acquiring that more costly OEL contract.

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3 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said:

Why would ownership be against this move?  Won't insurance be on the hook for Luongo's salary if he's on LITR?  When has ownership refused to spend money?  Certainly not when Benning had to get approval for acquiring that more costly OEL contract.

There could be any number of reasons as to why they would or would not spend the money on this.  My post was just to suggest that Benning likely didn't have full autonomy to make this call (literally).

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1 hour ago, Miss Korea said:

image.thumb.png.8a8e02d85ff2a11a8bc0dba25ff43ab9.png

 

Thank you Jim

Thank you Jim and Aquaman. The management team was too small, and incompetent clearly. that is brutal. Wouldn't have happened with our current group. 

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1 minute ago, SV. said:

There could be any number of reasons as to why they would or would not spend the money on this.  My post was just to suggest that Benning likely didn't have full autonomy to make this call (literally).

IMHO, its too easy to put the bulk of the blame on the owner in this case.  At best, it makes Jim Benning as nothing more than a stooge for the owner.

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21 minutes ago, SV. said:

It's C.

Benning was not great at his job, no doubt about it, but ownership has been proven to meddle in front office affairs more than any ownership should ideally be doing.

thanks for confirming, frank. 

 

I want an eyeroll reaction back so bad. 

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This was reported before I believe.  But still doesn't make JB look any better. Again if the mandate was to compete and Lu reached out to offer an out on a dead cap hit it should have at least warranted a call.

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