Roberto Luongo

Roberto Luongo was selected fourth overall by the New York Islanders in the first round of the 1997 NHL Draft — a pick that set in motion one of the longest careers the position has seen. Born April 4, 1979, in Montréal, Quebec, the 6'3", 215-pound left-catching goaltender went on to play in 1,044 NHL games, finishing with 489 wins, a 2.52 goals-against average, a .919 save percentage, and 77 shutouts before retiring in 2019.

Those numbers placed him among a small group of goalies in NHL history. He is fourth on the all-time win list, ninth in shutouts, and second in saves with 28,409 — a figure that trails only Martin Brodeur's record of 28,928. He was one of only three goalies to appear in more than 1,000 NHL games, alongside Brodeur and Patrick Roy. In November 2022, Luongo was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best

InGoal Magazine has covered Roberto Luongo in two podcast appearances, five drill breakdowns, and two InGoal articles.

InGoal's in-depth profile of Luongo, published ahead of his Hall of Fame induction, drew on accounts from many who played and worked alongside him. Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best Marc-Andre Fleury told InGoal: "He's been good all his career, he's been consistent through it. I tip my hat to the guy. He's a guy I looked up to when I was younger and I still do." Brodeur pointed to Luongo's passion as a defining characteristic: "You can just tell he wants to be the guy all the time. 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." Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best

Goaltending coach Francois Allaire, who worked with Luongo during his development years in Quebec, drew a direct comparison between Luongo and Patrick Roy in terms of the drive to hold down a starting role. "The drive to be a No. 1," Allaire told InGoal. "You cannot reach that point without having the drive to be a No. 1 goalie." 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 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." Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best

Ian Clark, who served as Luongo's goalie coach both during his first stint in Florida and for four of his six seasons in Vancouver, told InGoal: "The numbers are more than accomplishments and milestones, they're a testament to his daily commitment to be the best. Lu is such a student of the game that he had a variety of people throughout his career that he leaned on. He continued to lean on them knowing each had a different perspective on the position and he almost rotated through like a carousel, grabbing information as he went, plucking information to continue to evolve his game." Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best

That network of coaches included long-time Panthers goaltending coach Rob Tallas, Clark, Allaire, and his brother Leo Luongo, the Panthers goalie development coach. Luongo pointed to his offseason work with Tallas after being traded back to Florida in 2013 as particularly important to his longevity. "Back when I played in Vancouver a lot of times I was just running my own practices in Florida in the summer," Luongo 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 to develop or improve." Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best

Jamie McLennan, who played with Luongo in Florida in 2005-06, recalled watching him go out on 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." McLennan also noted Luongo's mental preparation: "He is as strong an athlete as I have ever seen as far as locking his mind into the game, his preparation. His preparation was second to none." Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best

Cory Schneider, who played alongside Luongo in Vancouver, offered this observation to InGoal: "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. He is kind of a combination of all those guys." Schneider connected that approach directly to career length: "That's how you play the game until you are 40 and that's how you play it that well until you are 40. You have that drive, that passion, that enjoyment of being on the ice. He was a perfectionist and I don't think he wanted to leave anything on the table." Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best

Luongo's three best save percentage seasons were spread across his career: a .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 season. Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best His approach to equipment and technique shifted as well: he updated his skates in his final two seasons to improve his edge, changed his pad strapping to improve his ice seal, and modernized his post-play techniques in 2013. After breaking a bone in his right shoulder in 2014-15, he began using a composite goalie stick during rehab and never switched back. Following hip surgery for a torn labrum in May 2016, he spent that summer doing water-based rehabilitation exercises in his backyard pool. Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best

InGoal spent a week on the ice with Luongo and Tallas at the Florida Panthers training facility in early August 2018, ahead of what would be his final NHL season, recording drills and reviewing footage with Luongo afterward. That session produced five Pro Drills breakdowns covering RVH and sharp-angle patience Pro Drills: Luongo rush and sharp-angle patience drill, plays and windows behind the net Pro Drills: Luongo on windows to manage behind the net, screen patience and short-side reads Pro-Drills: Luongo uses screens to work on patience, shifting into shots, proper leg recovery moving forward Pro-Drills: Tallas, Luongo and Reimer: Proper Leg Recovery Moving Forward, and paddle-down movement Pro-Drills: Paddle Down Part 2: Movement drills with Reimer, Luongo + more.

In those sessions, Luongo discussed at length his approach to the reverse-VH. As he told InGoal: "Commit too early to the reverse and guys now have figured it out." His emphasis was on patience — staying on his feet as long as possible in any situation. "The main thing for me is you want to be on your feet as much as possible in any situation. You don't want to commit too early. You want to hold as much as possible," he said. Pro Drills: Luongo rush and sharp-angle patience drill On the question of when a shooter's skill simply outpaces the goalie's options, Luongo 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." Pro Drills: Luongo rush and sharp-angle patience drill

Luongo also spoke to InGoal about his approach on screens, crediting lessons absorbed early in his career: "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." He summarized the underlying logic plainly: "I think the percentages are better on the short side." Pro-Drills: Luongo uses screens to work on patience, shifting into shots

On the broader importance of foundational movement, Luongo told 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." Pro Drills: Luongo on windows to manage behind the net

Luongo appeared on InGoal Radio twice: on the debut episode of the podcast in January 2019 InGoal Radio Episode 1 Roberto Luongo and Sonya DiBiase, and on Episode 200 in January 2023 InGoal Radio Episode 200 with Roberto Luongo. In August 2021, InGoal moderated a Q&A with Luongo that originated as his Keynote Address to participants at Hockey Canada's Virtual Goaltending Coach Certification Seminar. At the time of that interview, Luongo was working for the Florida Panthers overseeing their goaltending excellence department and had just served as Canada's General Manager at the World Championships. Spend an Hour with Roberto Luongo

In 2017, Luongo told InGoal: "It's just work and trying to be the best at your craft. That passion is still there and wanting to be the best is still there. I work to improve my game every day, and the day I feel I don't need to do that anymore will probably be the day I retire." Luongo Hall of Fame Career Defined by Evolution, Drive to be Best