Roberto Luongo wants trade to Florida but claims he'd go elswhere

Roberto Luongo talked to the Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper Monday and said what some media, Digital Journal included, have said all along: he wants to go to Florida. He spoke to the paper as Scott Clemmensen and Jose Theodore worked out on nearby ice.

"It's been a tough summer, not knowing what's going to happen," Luongo told the Sun-Sentinel. "It's tough to not know what your future is going to be with your family and everything. There were a couple of stressful moments, but we're still here and everything's good." Luongo went on to say a return to the Panthers was what he preferred and was hoping would be arranged. His wife is from Florida and they make their off-season home there. The 33-year-old, who appears to have been supplanted in Vancouver by the younger Cory Schneider, suggested that he was open to other hockey clubs, primarily the Toronto Maple Leafs or Chicago Blackhawks (who may be the only other two interested in dealing for him) but he did not make it sound like he was very open. "This (Florida) is a preferred location for obvious reasons, but I'm not shutting the door on other possibilities if it comes up." The talk took place at the Saveology.com Iceplex in Coral Springs, Fl., near Fort Lauderdale, where he'd finished an informal workout that morning. As he spoke, the two current veteran Panther goalies, Clemmensen and Theodore, and some of their teammates, were on the ice. "(The Panthers) makes sense for myself, for my career and my family," Luongo said.