In the 1997 NHL amateur draft, the Islanders had the 4th overall selection. With that selection, they chose goalie Roberto Luongo. Luongo was an Islander for 3 seasons, his last being the 1999/2000 season. In that season he had played 24 games for the Islanders.
Before being traded, he had hopes of starting for the Islanders the following season. He told the Vancouver Sun, "...I actually got a call an hour before that [them trading him] to tell me they had traded Kevin Weekes who was the other (Islander) goalie, so I thought, 'Oh good, I'll have a chance to start this year.' And then an hour later I got the call that I was traded, too."
Without naming names, Luongo says Milbury was a reason that things didn't work out here with the Islanders. He cited Milbury's fascination with the puck handling goalies and with DiPietro in the draft that year, it appeared to be a perfect match.
Luongo tells the Sun that he has never seen Milbury since beside seeing him on TV. "Nope, I've never seen him. I've seen him on TV, but that's it."
Tonight, Luongo pays a visit to where it all began, now as a member of Vancouver.
For more from the Vancouver Sun check out the link below:
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/hockey/vancouver-canucks/return+roots+Long+Island+rekindles/9062850/story.html
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