Rob The Hockey Guy

The Roberto Luongo trade rumours are in full force. Previously I’ve looked at the possibility of Luongo heading to Toronto, Edmonton, Florida and Chicago. Until today, I have not thought about the possibility of Luongo in the orange and black of the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Luongo to Philadelphia rumour heated up today after TSN’s James Duthie mentioned Philly’s interest on Twitter.

Acquiring Luongo makes a lot of sense for the Flyers when you look at their lineup. They might be the deepest team in the NHL at the forward position and have a decent defence corps. Their issue is in net, which was supposed to have been solved when they signed Ilya Bryzgalov. That couldn’t have been further from the truth, as Bryzgalov bombed in his first year in Philly. Bryzgalov was supposed to be the missing piece for the Flyers but wasn’t, but maybe Luongo can be.

Of course, if the Flyers want Luongo, they’ll have to find a trading partner for Bryzgalov or buy him out. Finding a trading partner seems unlikely given his contract and poor play, and buying him out is an expensive endeavor (he still has 8 years left on his contract). But if there’s any team that would be willing to buck up, it’s the Flyers.

If the Flyers can move Bryzgalov, they absolutely have the pieces to make a deal with Vancouver. The Canucks want to get younger and tougher, get secondary scoring and improve their depth on defence. Guys like Wayne Simmonds, Matt Read, Sean Couturier, Jakub Voracek, Andrej Meszaros and Braydon Coburn are all players that would go a long way to making a deal for Luongo a reality.

Personally, I’d love to see one of their defencemen in Vancouver (Meszaros or Coburn) or power forward Wayne Simmonds. Those players would be great fits in Vancouver. Meszaros and Coburn are both solid #2-3 d-men with an ability to play a good all around game, while Simmonds is a big, tough power forward that would look great on a line with Ryan Kesler.

Hearing that the Flyers have interest in Luongo definitely raised my eyebrow, but I still think I’ll believe it when I see it. They’ll need to move Bryzgalov first, and I just don’t see that happening.