Through ups and downs, Luongo enters Hall of Fame 'a better person'

TORONTO — Could he do it over — and few of us are that lucky — Roberto Luongo would be less guarded, more generous, kinder to himself, and appreciative of everything that came along during his wild National Hockey League journey.

Instead, he has a few regrets, but wisdom to offset them. 

The challenges Luongo endured during his 19 seasons, like losing his starting job with the Vancouver Canucks near the peak of his career and then discovering no one else wanted him and his “my-contract-sucks” salary, made him more human and more grateful.

Which is why one of the greatest days of his hockey life was Monday, when the 43-year-old former goalie walked up the red carpet leading to Meridian Hall, came out of the cold and into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“I wish I could have enjoyed it more when I was younger,” Luongo said on the eve of the induction ceremony. “I was a very serious kid when I broke into the league. It's not a bad thing, but at the same time, sometimes I feel like I didn't really take the time to enjoy certain things in my career. I was always enthralled with what was happening but in a serious way.

“That's a little bit of one of my regrets early on in my career that I learned the hard way. Once I got into the later stages of my career and I knew things were coming closer to the end, I was just hoping that I could extend it a bit longer.”

But time ran out for Luongo, at least as an athlete, 3 ½ years ago when he retired from the Florida Panthers, his body unable to continue after playing 1,044 NHL games — more than any other goalie in history except Martin Brodeur, who grew up in the same Saint-Leonard neighbourhood north of Montreal. Luongo’s 489 NHL wins are fourth all-time.

Yet, in a way, Luongo has extended “it” forever. Vulnerable and humbled towards the end of his remarkable eight years with the Canucks, who merely borrowed him from the Panthers, Luongo is now immortal. The Hall of Fame is forever.

“I had my best moments in Vancouver, got to a Stanley Cup Final,” Luongo said in a speech capping Monday night’s ceremony that included his Canucks teammates Henrik and Daniel Sedin. “I got to appreciate things more during the difficult times. They demanded a lot out of me and I expected a lot out of myself, and I think they helped push me to become a better player and, most importantly, a better person.”

Luongo cites the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final and his Olympic triumph with Team Canada in Vancouver in 2010 as his career highlights. But it was probably those final five years of his career with the Panthers — after the surprising 2014 return trip to South Florida ended what had been an excruciating two-year trade mission under former Canucks general manager Mike Gillis — that Luongo probably savoured most.

He was a three-time Vezina Trophy finalist, finishing second to Brodeur in 2007 in one of the closest votes in the award’s history. But in 2016, at age 37, Luongo was fourth in Vezina voting after a 62-game, 35-win season that carried the Panthers to the playoffs for just the second time in 15 years.

Not counting the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign, Luongo played at least 54 games a year for 13 straight seasons.

“I was a specimen,” he deadpanned in the customary humour he first revealed through his Twitter account a decade ago.

“I'm just proud of the longevity of this game,” he said. “The level that I played at for so long is something that I took a lot of pride in. As I got older, I kept working on my game, kept trying to get better, didn't get satisfied, didn't get stuck in my ways.”

Now, he’s learning in his second career. When he retired in 2019, Luongo slid into an advisory position with the Panthers. He wants to be a general manager or NHL team president someday, once his teenage kids are a little older.

He said “100 per cent” that the years that sped past early in his career and the belated realization that he hadn’t taken the time to fully enjoy and appreciate them, made all that came after more precious.

“A lot of ups, a lot of downs there,” Luongo told reporters a few years ago during his final visit to Vancouver as a player. “I think it made me a better person. It made me grow more mature, understand things a little bit better and how things work. How to handle things, especially when things are not so easy. That’s huge, especially moving forward in life.

“It was not an easy spot and I regret the way I handled certain things. And if I could do it over again, I would do it differently and not worry so much about the outside stuff.”

But then a different path may not have carried Luongo to where he was Monday, a better person for his experiences, thoughtful and self-aware, and one of the best goalies who ever played.