Roberto Luongo

Roberto Luongo was born on April 4, 1979, in Montréal, Quebec, and was selected fourth overall by the New York Islanders in the first round of the 1997 NHL Draft. He went on to play 1,044 games across 19 NHL seasons, finishing his career with 489 wins, a 2.52 goals-against average, a .919 save percentage, and 77 shutouts. When he retired in 2019, he was one of only three goalies in NHL history to appear in more than 1,000 games, alongside Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy.

Those career numbers were central to his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2022. At the time of induction, Luongo stood fourth on the all-time NHL win list, ninth in shutouts, and second in saves with 28,409 — a little more than 500 stops behind Brodeur's record of 28,928. His career .919 save percentage ranked third among goalies to play at least 500 games, behind only Dominik Hasek (.922) and Tuukka Rask (.921). From his first full NHL season with the Florida Panthers in 2000-01 through an injury-affected final year in 2018-19, his save percentage dipped below .915 only three times ^[1].

His three best save percentage seasons were spread across different stages of his career: a career-best .931 in 2003-04 in Florida, a .928 in 2010-11 with Vancouver, and a .929 in 2017-18 with the Panthers, his second-to-last NHL season ^[1]. Goalie coach Ian Clark, who worked with Luongo for one year in his first Florida stint and for four of his six seasons with the Canucks, described what drove those numbers: "The numbers are more than accomplishments and milestones, they're a testament to his daily commitment to be the best," Clark told InGoal. "Lu is such a student of the game that he had a variety of people throughout his career that he leaned on... his ears were always open, his mind was always open to what he could apply to his game to keep him at the forefront of the position." ^[1]

Multiple people who played and worked alongside Luongo pointed to his offseason preparation as central to his career length. Jamie McLennan, who played with Luongo in Florida in 2005-06, recalled watching him go to the ice two hours early to work through a rough patch. "This is a guy who never wanted to take a day off, even when he was playing 70-plus games," McLennan said. "It was about repetition for him, doing it every day and always trying to get better and better." ^[1] Cory Schneider, who saw the work ethic firsthand with the Canucks, also noted something he observed in how Luongo played: "He kind of created his own style I thought. He had the butterfly but he had flair, he had something about him when he played the game that wasn't quite as active as Fleury but a little more than Patty Roy." ^[1]

Goaltending coach Francois Allaire, who worked with Luongo growing up in Quebec, drew a parallel between Luongo's drive and that of Patrick Roy. "The drive to be a No. 1," Allaire said of the common thread. "You cannot reach that point without having the drive to be a No. 1 goalie... you have to have the drive to say 'hey I'm the No. 1 guy and I want that spot and I want to play as many games as I can.'" Allaire also credited Luongo's willingness to evolve: "Patrick could adapt and change his style and to stay on top of the game. You have to. You have to understand what is going on and not stay in the same place all the time. You have to evolve with the game and it was same with Roberto." ^[1]

Luongo himself pointed to his offseason work with Panthers goaltending coach Rob Tallas as a key factor in his ability to keep developing late in his career. "Back when I played in Vancouver a lot of times I was just running my own practices in Florida in the summer," he said. "Working with Robbie every day is such a benefit in the summer as you try to get ready for the season. That's actually the most important time. That's when you can add things to your game or work on things you don't have time to during the season." ^[1] In addition to Tallas, Luongo also worked with Allaire, Clark, and his brother Leo Luongo, the Panthers goalie development coach. "It's not just one thing from one person. Everyone has added a piece to the puzzle," he said ^[1].

That willingness to adapt showed up in concrete ways throughout his career. When Luongo required hip surgery for a torn labrum in May 2016, he spent the summer doing water-based rehabilitation exercises in his backyard pool. After breaking a bone in his right shoulder in 2014-15, he tried a composite goalie stick during rehab and never switched back. In his final seasons with the Panthers, he updated his skates to gain a better edge from his knees, and also changed the strapping on his pads to make them lighter and improve his ice seal in the butterfly ^[1].

InGoal Magazine spent a week on the ice with Luongo and Tallas in early August 2018, prior to what would become his final NHL season, recording drills and reviewing footage with Luongo afterward. That footage produced several Pro Drills features. One covered screen work, with Luongo discussing his habit of looking to the short side when a shooter is screened. "I think the percentages are better on the short side," he said, adding: "When it's our own defenseman you usually try to tell them to give you the short side and take away the far side and when it's an opposing player you want to try to look short side unless the guy is overcommitting to that side. It's just the way I always learned it." ^[2] He was also self-critical during that session, noting that he was shifting before the puck was released: "You want to try to hold on the short side as long as you can… until the last second because if you get sliding the wrong way, that's going to be not a good situation." ^[2]

Another session focused on plays behind the net, where Luongo worked through what he described as a "four window" approach to tracking the puck on wraparound and pass-out attempts ^[3]. He also addressed the importance of basic crease movement, telling InGoal: "It's always there. When the base is there you feel so much better about your game, you know? You feel like the saves are easier to make." ^[3]

A third drill series addressed the reverse-VH, a sharp-angle technique that Luongo had incorporated into his game and continued refining through his final season. He listed the reads that went into his decision-making — the handedness of the attacking player, the angle of attack, and the player's proximity to the net — and emphasized patience in applying the technique. "Commit too early to the reverse and guys now have figured it out," he said. On accepting occasional goals while using it, he was direct: "Listen, if he can pick a spot off the crossbar from the goal line, you got to give the guy credit, not everybody can do that. So, I'm willing to sacrifice a goal that way to make sure that maybe I stopped five or six different ones using the reverse on different plays." ^[4]

In 2021, Hockey Canada invited Luongo to deliver the keynote address at its Virtual Goaltending Coach Certification Seminar. Luongo turned that address into a Q&A hosted by InGoal, covering topics including gear, technique, social media, and mindset. At the time, he was working for the Florida Panthers in a role overseeing their goaltending excellence department ^[5]. He had also recently served as Canada's general manager at the World Championships ^[5].

Luongo appeared on the inaugural episode of InGoal Radio in January 2019 ^[6], and returned for the podcast's 200th episode in January 2023 ^[7]. InGoal Magazine has covered Roberto Luongo in two podcast appearances, five drill breakdowns, and two InGoal articles.

Martin Brodeur, speaking to InGoal before Luongo's retirement, captured a view shared by many who worked alongside him: "He battles for his ice time, he battles to get back from injury as quick as he can. That passion is important if you want to be successful as an athlete, the joy of playing that game and wanting to be the guy over and over and not just say 'oh, I don't have it now, I'll take a seat.' You fight through all that stuff and Luongo has done that for years and that's why he is where he is at." ^[1]