Roberto Luongo was born to Pasqualina and Antonio Luongo in Montreal, Quebec Canada. His father was an Italian immigrant, born in Santa Paolina, Avellino and his mother, an Irish-Canadian. Luongo and his family lived in St. Leonard, Quebec, a borough north of Montreal with a strong Italian community resulting in his fluency in English, French and Italian. Grant Fuhr, the goaltender for the Edmonton Oilers during the Wayne Gretzky years, proved to be Luongo's inspiration to become a goaltender.
Was drafted by the New York Islander 4th overall in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft.
On June 24, 2000 he was traded to the Florida Panthers along with centre Olli Jokinen for winger Mark Parrish and centre Oleg Kvasha. He played in Florida for 6 years.
On June 23, 2006 prior to the start of the season, Panthers general manager Mike Keenan traded Luongo to the Vancouver Canucks. He was packaged with defenceman Lukas Krajicek and a sixth round draft pick (Sergei Shirokov) in exchange for forward Todd Bertuzzi, defenceman Bryan Allen and goaltender Alex Auld Immediately following the deal, Vancouver signed Luongo to a four-year, $27 million deal.
In 2008, Became the 12th Captain in Vancouver Canucks franchise history.
He has won multiple gold medals for Canada, most notably he backstopped team Canada in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, helping team Canada beat the United States in overtime.
Log in to comment