ROBERTO EXTENSION-12 years
Luongo has an out after 5 years, the Canucks can also trade him after 7 years
203 regular season, 22 post-season
kirk mclean – 10 seasons, brodeur 7
Barrasso played in ten
Part of my research into Pittsburgh’s playoff history left me staggered. I was reviewing how long some players had played during the post-season for the Penguins and was surprised to see the two goalies have played well over 50% of Pittsburgh’s playoff games. They are of course Tom Barasso – 101 games in 10 post-seasons, and Marc-Andre Fleury, who has played 45 games as of today.
After these two, the numbers fall off to: Ken Wregget who played in 26 and Johan Hedberg who played in 18 one playoff series.
Pittsburgh had played in 24 post-seasons – of a potential 41 times: 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982…1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999…2000, 2001…2007, 2008, and 2009. Fleury, on the other hand had come to the Pens the 2003-04 season and didn’t make it into the post-season until three years later.
And after Barasso had left – and before Fleury had arrived, Ron Tugnutt had played in the 2000 post-season and Johan Hedberg in the 2001 playoffs (Ken Wregget had primarily served as Barrasso’s backup.).
And before that, it was kind of a goalie per year who backstopped the Penns.
courtesy of nhl.com
This lack of continuity seemed strange to me, until I compared the Penguins goalies to those of the Canucks.
Kirk McLean was Vancouver’s backstop from the 1989 until the 1996 playoffs (The ‘nucks didn’t reach the post-season in 1990.). And, he played in 7 post-seasons before being traded to Carolina.
Vancouver played in 21 post-seasons – of a potential 36: 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996…2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, and 2009.
After Kirk McLean, there are three goalies who played in 20 or more playoff games: Richard Brodeur, Dan Cloutier, and Roberto Luongo.
So, Pittsburgh had one main goalie – in their history – with another one who has played in three post-seasons and has a great career ahead of him. They totaled 14 of their 24 post-seasons.
Vancouver, on the other hand, had one main goalie – who paid in 6 of Vancouver’s 21 seasons – and three other goalies who played in 10 post-series.
