ESPN make asinine decision in leaving Roberto Luongo out of top 25 list

As with a lot of sports-mad fans, we grew up with ESPN, watching its growth from an upstart cable channel to one of the major players on the North American sports media landscape. However, at some point it started to head in a different direction, for a whole number of reasons which we won't get into here and now. (Let's just add that there's a lot of truth in the saying that sport reflect society.)

Nowadays, ESPN continually do things which erode away at their credibility as a sports media outlet. Now though it's personal, with them coming up with something which impacts the Vancouver Canucks and their fans specifically, with an extremely asinine omission.

Giving due credit to Adam Kierszenblat of The Hockey News for this, ESPN has released their ranking of the top 25 NHL players of the 21st century. However, for some inexplicable reason, they left Canucks legend Roberto Luongo off the list.

Let's try to look at this rationally...

Now yes, we appreciate that some of the more level-headed folks among you will be thinking there has to be a good reason for leaving Luongo off the list. After all, 25 players isn't that many to have to narrow it down to, when considering just how many are available in the grand scheme of things.

The problem with this objective approach though, is that it begins to break down from just looking at the list, which includes five other goalies. Those five are Martin Brodeur, Henrik Lundqvist, Marc-Andre Fleury, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Jonathan Quick.

Now of course, no one in their right mind would deny each of these five goaltenders have enjoyed extremely successful careers, with Fleury, Vasilevskiy and Quick all still playing. Collectively in the 21st century -- beginning from Jan. 1 2001 -- they have seven Vezina Trophies and 10 Stanley Cups.

Luongo more than holds his own versus the other five

However, to say that individually all five are ahead of Luongo, is quite simply incorrect. In fact, upon further inspection the Canucks legend should be near the top of the goalie rankings on ESPN's list, never mind just included.

As noted by Kierszenblat, since the beginning of the 21st century Luongo is second among all NHL goalies with 480 wins and third with 74 shutouts. He has also been a picture of durability to go along with his consistency, as one of just two goaltenders to reach 1,000 games played this century.

Now yes, we appreciate that unlike the other five goalies, the six-time NHL All-Star does not have a Vezina Trophy or Stanley Cup to his name as a player. In this respect, the closest he came was twice being a Vezina finalist and once making it to the Stanley Cup Final, losing in seven games to the Boston Bruins in 2010-11.

Regardless, Luongo still stacks up extremely well when compared to the other five goalies on ESPN's list, in respect of career save percentage and Goals Against Average (GAA). His .919 save percentage is best out of the six goaltenders, while his 2.52 GAA is fourth.

The 1997 fourth overall draft pick was also exemplary on the international stage during his playing days in the 21st century. He helped Team Canada win four golds, including two at the Winter Olympics.

One last thing to consider is that last time we checked, Luongo was in the Hockey Hall of Fame, with him being inducted in 2022. When it comes down to it, ESPN dropped the ball big time by leaving him off their list, although we shouldn't really be surprised given their less than sterling reputation these days.

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