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Luongo passed Belfour for fourth all-time in saves this weekend

Roberto Luongo

Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo walks to the team dressing room after speaking to the media in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Thursday, May 9, 2013. The Canucks were eliminated from the NHL hockey 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs series in four games by the San Jose Sharks. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

AP

Roberto Luongo achieved a milestone this weekend, and it wasn’t about foiling the Buffalo Sabres once again. He now ranks fourth all-time in saves with 22,438, passing Hall-of-Famer Ed Belfour in the process.

One can fathom that Luongo’s seasons with the Florida Panthers play the biggest role, as Luongo remarkably reached this many saves in far fewer games played (823) than Belfour (963).

As you can see from the three guys ahead of him, it won’t be easy to advance higher up this list:

1. Martin Brodeur: 28,810
2. Patrick Roy: 25,807
3. Curtis Joseph: 24,279
4. Luongo: 22,438

If you take a straight average of his 22,438 saves in 823 games, he makes about 27 stops per night, so it would take quite a while to get by Cujo and Roy (as usual with Brodeur, it’s tough to imagine people breaking his records).

Evgeni Nabokov is the second-highest ranked active player on the all-time list, coming in at No. 18 with 16,680 saves.

Hall of Fame voters probably don’t look at a goalie’s volume of saves when considering his merits, yet this is another bullet point on Luongo’s resume.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins