Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Did You Know? Roberto Luongo is a dual record-holder

Roberto Luongo

Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo waves to the crowd after being named the first star in the team’s win over the Minnesota Wild during an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Wednesday Jan. 4, 2012. Luongo earned a shutout while playing in his 700th NHL game in the team’s 3-0 victory over the Wild. (AP Photo/THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

AP

The “Did You Know?” series ties in the news of the day with some little-known hockey factoids and/or trivia. It’ll be fun. Trust me.

On Saturday, Roberto Luongo backstopped Vancouver to a 4-3 win over San Jose. It was his 19th win of the year and 212th in a Canucks uniform, moving him past Kirk McLean for the all-time franchise record.

Obtaining the record was nice, though not especially extraordinary. Luongo passed the likes of Richard Brodeur, Dan Cloutier and Gary “Suitcase” Smith en route to the honor -- let’s just say goaltending hasn’t traditionally been Vancouver’s strong suit.

But there was an impressive feat in all of this. By claiming the Canucks record, Luongo became the all-time wins leader for two NHL franchises -- Vancouver and Florida. He won 108 games as a Panther from 2000-06 and is the only goaltender to hold career wins records for two current teams.

More, from the Elias Sports Bureau:

One netminder was the wins leader for two defunct NHL franchises: Roy Worters, with the Pittsburgh Pirates (later the Philadelphia Quakers) and New York Americans. Worters, who is the shortest player in NHL history, at 5'3", was known as “Shrimp”.

source:

Luongo could hold both records for a very long time. His most recent challenger in Florida, Tomas Vokoun, came close to eclipsing the mark (101 wins), but was cut loose this offseason and is now in Washington.

[Side note: Had Vokoun moved atop the Florida list, he would’ve been mentioned in the same sentence as Shrimp Worters, because Vokoun still holds Nashville’s all-time wins record, with 161.]

The three current Panthers netminders -- Scott Clemmensen, Jose Theodore and Jacob Markstrom -- have a long way to go. Clemmensen leads with 23 wins, Theodore has 14 and Markstrom (supposedly the goalie of the future) has just two.

Luongo has an even tighter grip on the Vancouver record. The only possible challenger at the moment is Cory Schneider, and he’s 184 wins back.

Other goalies of note

-- Nikolai Khabibulin is first all-time for the Lightning, third for the Coyotes, ninth for the Blackhawks and 10th for the Oilers.

-- Dallas’ Kari Lehtonen is the career wins leader for the Atlanta Thrashers (94) and fourth on the all-time Stars list. (That said, he’s still 206 wins shy of Ed Belfour.)

-- Steve Mason is two wins away from becoming Columbus’ all-time wins leader, which pretty much says everything about Columbus.