Canucks flooded with furious fans after polarizing Luongo announcement

Well, this is awkward.

The Vancouver Canucks announced they’ll be adding another player to the Ring of Honour. Usually, that’s a cause for celebration.

But in this case, it’s a controversy.

Roberto Luongo was a polarizing figure throughout much of his time in Vancouver, so perhaps this is fitting. Because when the Canucks announced he would become the eighth member of the team’s Ring of Honour, most of the responses they received on social media were not kind.

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The Canucks were flooded with replies from irate fans on Twitter when they made the announcement at 4 pm on Wednesday. They later deleted the tweet.

But when they reposted the same announcement at 4:42, it drew a similar response.

delete it again and say you're retiring it

— Brian C (@brianhwc) December 1, 2022

deleting the tweet and reposting it isn't going to stop the negative reaction. This is BS. #Retire1

— Taj (@taj1944) December 1, 2022

The greatest goaltender in franchise history deserves more than the Ring of Honour.

His jersey belongs in the rafters next to Daniel, Henrik, Linden, Bure, Naslund, and Smyl.#retire1

— Brian Wiebe (he/him) (@Brian_Wiebe) December 1, 2022

Bushleague and disrespectful to arguably the greatest player that's ever played here.

Retire the Number.

— BoestMode (@BoestMode) December 1, 2022

How is this not a jersey retirement. This is a insult

— Brant (@drchill49) December 1, 2022

 

The decision also doesn’t appear to be popular among fans on Instagram either. The most-liked comments on the announcement are all calling for Luongo’s number to be retired.

The Canucks first unveiled the Ring of Honour in 2010, to “celebrate Canucks heroes who have made a lasting impact on the franchise.” Previous inductees include Orland Kurtenbach, Harold Snepsts, Thomas Gradin, Kirk McLean, Pat Quinn, Mattias Ohlund, and Alex Burrows.

There is nothing stopping the Canucks from choosing to retire Luongo’s jersey at a later date, and perhaps that’ll happen one day. But for now, this appears to be an unprecedented move for the organization.

Every other debatable jersey retirement resulted in the Canucks opting to hang a number from the rafters. That was the case for Pavel Bure in 2013 after he had a messy divorce from the team more than a decade earlier. The Canucks also had to make a decision with Markus Naslund, and they retired his number in 2010.

Luongo is the greatest goaltender in Canucks history, as the franchise’s all-time leader in wins (252), save percentage (.919), and goals-against average (2.36) among netminders with at least 100 games played.

Luongo is also one of just four players in the Hall of Fame that played a significant portion of their career in Vancouver. The others — Bure and the Sedins — have had their jerseys retired. So have former captains Naslund, Trevor Linden, and Stan Smyl.