By Steve Ewen
The Vancouver Warriors got their Roberto Luongo trade done.
The Vancouver Canucks’ National Lacrosse League team landed star goalie Christian Del Bianco from the Calgary Roughnecks in a trade deadline day deal on Monday, with defender Brayden Laity, two first-round draft picks, a second rounder and future considerations going to the Roughnecks in return.
Del Bianco, 27, is in the conversation for best player in the game right now. He was the 2023 NLL most valuable player, he helped the Roughnecks to the 2019 league championship. He’s been sitting on the sidelines so far this season, holding out from Calgary after telling the team that he was tired of travelling every week of the season and wanted to play closer to his Lower Mainland home.
He’s slated to make his Warriors’ debut Friday when Vancouver (5-7) hosts the Toronto Rock (4-8) at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks traded for a 27-year-old Luongo in 2006, and that helped set the wheels in motion for one of the best runs in franchise history. This deal for the Warriors could be that kind of deal.
“It’s hard not to be excited,” said Del Bianco, the former Coquitlam Jr. Adanacs standout. “You call your shot, and you kind of hope that it can maybe happen. And we’re here now, so pretty excited about Friday night, and obviously, the next five to 10 years of my career in Vancouver, right?
“There was a big ask (by the Roughnecks), and they (the Warriors) paid the price to get me, and I’m looking forward to prove that I was worth it over the next 10 years.”
The Canucks bought the lacrosse team in June 2018, purchasing the Vancouver Stealth and moving them from the Langley Events Centre to Rogers Arena before giving them a new look and monicker.
There’s a single playoff game to show for the past 10 seasons for the franchise. They did jump to 8-10 last season after finishing 4-14 the campaign before.
The Canucks have made a concerted push to improve the team the last couple of years. Curt Malawsky had great success as coach of the Roughnecks. His contract with Calgary ran out two summers ago, and the Warriors swooped in and recruited him away, giving the Coquitlam lacrosse product a five-year deal to be general manager and coach.
Malawsky has been active on the free agent market, inking defenders like Ryan Dilks and Jeff Cornwall. And now there’s Del Bianco.
Vancouver has six games left in their regular season, with four coming at home. The league standings are a traffic jam. The Buffalo Bandits (9-2) and the Saskatchewan Rush (10-3) lead the way, but they are followed by five teams with seven wins, one with six and the Warriors and two others with five each.
Malawsky is a stickler for staying in the present. He won’t dare talk about chasing playoffs right now. He’ll talk about playing Toronto and maybe his breakfast plans on Saturday morning if you’re lucky. But getting into the postseason would be massive for the franchise. Wining is always the best marketing, but it’s especially true in Vancouver.
The Warriors announced crowds at home so far have been 9,437. That’s up from 8,874 last year and 8,166 the season before that.
“The goal is to get better every week and Christian gets us better this week,” Malawsky said. “The league is so tight, the parity is like we’ve never seen it before. We’re just going to look at the game that’s right in front of us because we know that if we look past that we struggle.”
There are teams in the league regularly draw over 10,000 — the Roughnecks had 13,094 for their home opening loss to the Warriors — and there’s a school of thought that could happen in Vancouver with a contender.
As well, an estimated 20 per cent of the league’s players live in the Lower Mainland and the Warriors being regularly in the playoff mix would make free agents more inclined to play at home, as it were.
The salary cap is $585,000 per team. The players still need regular jobs. Travelling for nine road games instead of travelling for an entire 18-game schedule is bound to make life decidedly easier.
“I think the owners are doing all the right things. They’re investing money into the marketing and there’s been a steady incline (in fan interest). It’s our job to get the results,” Del Bianco explained. “Vancouver is a performance-based city. When the Canucks are good, people show up. When the B.C. Lions are good, people show up. There’s nothing that says that it won’t be the same thing for us.”
Del Bianco will take over the Vancouver net from Aden Walsh, 23. Walsh has held up his end of the bargain to date, sporting a 9.95 goals against average and a 78.7 save percentage.
He’s in the top third of goalies in the league at the very least. Vancouver has just brought in a guy who’s in the top three overall.
Walsh will move to No. 2, and rookie Connor O’Toole, 21, becomes No. 3.
“I’m here be a good teammate. I’m here to help those guys,” Del Bianco said. “I understand that my situation puts some other people in a tough one.
“I told T-Rich (goalie coach Tyler Richards) that I maybe owe O’Toole a couple of dinners over the next little while, with him coming out of the line-up.”
Vancouver’s issues have been with its sporadic offence. It can go silent for extended stints.
Del Bianco doesn’t help that directly. But Vancouver making such a marquee addition is bound to give confidence to the entire group.
And Del Bianco is one of the best long-ball passing goalies the league has seen. He had 19 assists in 2023.
“There’s a lot of benefits to me coming to Vancouver, but the biggest one is I’m coming to try to win,” Del Bianco said.”I think that’s a big thing. We’ll be pushing, not just this year, but for free agents this summer. We’re coming. The owners are bought in. They’re willing to spend what they need to spend, and we have the coaching staff, and I think we can get the hometown talent back here playing now.”
Del Bianco announced on his Instagram back in July that he didn’t plan on accepting Calgary’s contract offer. The Roughnecks gave him their franchise player tag, doubling down on him remaining with their club.
Vancouver and Calgary reportedly talked trade throughout, but when a deal didn’t come at the dispersal draft and amateur draft, it looked less likely something might happen. The odds against it occurring. this year seemed to increase, too, when Calgary got out to a strong start to the season, and then again when they added veteran goalie Nick Rose from Toronto via trade.
Calgary does have other free agents this summer that they might want to use the franchise tag on, though, so making this deal for Del Bianco gives them that option.
Malawsky has always spoken highly of Laity, talking often about how he “lives off the cross check.” He was a junior call-up with the Langley Thunder for the Western Lacrosse Association’s playoffs when Malawsky was coaching that team two summers ago in club lacrosse.
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