Music: {allcanada} SCHNEIDER'S AGENT CONCERNED ABOUT GOALIE'S PLAYING TIME

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

{allcanada} SCHNEIDER'S AGENT CONCERNED ABOUT GOALIE'S PLAYING TIME

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While Vancouver Canucks goaltender Cory Schneider hasn't spoken much about Roberto Luongo making four straight starts for the club, his agent Mike Liut shared his concerns about the situation.

Liut told The Vancouver Sun on Monday that he hopes that the Luongo trade saga can play out sooner rather than later.

"Our concern is we were hoping that this would be the year that Cory would play 75 per cent of the games," Liut told the paper. "We are only interested in resolution, we are not going to get into the finger-pointing game and to that end you have to take a step back and you have to give them latitude to make a business decision."

Speaking on the TEAM 1040 Radio on Tuesday, Canucks general manager Mike Gillis addressed the playing time of his two goalies.

"We are conscious of ice time and we have to win games," he said. "We don't have the luxury of peoples' feelings."

While Liut would like a deal to be done, he understands the difficulty in moving Luongo's contract and acknowledged that both goaltenders could remain in Vancouver for the time being.

But he still wants Schneider to get his share of the workload. "If they are both there for the entire season, and it's a 48-game season, and Roberto plays 40 games, that's a disaster," Liut said. "That's an extreme and I don't think that's going to happen, but certainly the sooner the better.

"Roberto is established, everybody knows what he can do, and you've got another one in Cory, who hopes to get an opportunity to play (as a No. 1) for the first time, and we've got this fractured season."

Liut, a former goaltender, told the Sun that he understood that the club needed to showcase Luongo, but was surprised at how many starts the 34-year-old was making.

"What you have is two goalies and there's only one net and you are trying to trade one of them. So you have to play him. Now it's four games in a row, does that give you some concern at the same time? Sure, because with a player like Cory you want to see him play every night."

Liut went on to say that Schneider was mentally tough enough to deal with the current situation, and hasn't heard any whispers of the club looking to move his client, who signed a three-year, $12 million deal with the club in the summer.

"Vancouver has a decision to make with their goaltending, everybody knows that. We don't need to add more to it than that. Everyone wants it resolved and if it can get resolved that will be better for everybody."