Roberto Luongo is back in Vancouver to be honoured by the Canucks. Here’s a look at his legacy (and tweets)

Canucks fans can expect to see Roberto Luongo walking around Vancouver over the next day or two.

The team’s former goaltender — who holds the franchise’s all-time record for wins and shutouts — says he plans to do a lot of reminiscing while he’s back in the city to be inducted into the Canucks’ Ring of Honour on Thursday night.

But for the Montreal native, Vancouver is more than just the place where he played 448 regular season and 64 playoff games over eight seasons.

“It’s a huge, huge part of my life [and] always will be,” Luongo told reporters gathered to hear him speak Thursday morning.

“My daughter started school here … this city holds a special place for me.”

And the feeling is mutual.

Joel Ali, a coach with the Lower Mainland’s Pro-Formance Goalie School and Development Centre, said Luongo’s arrival in Vancouver “really changed the vibes” for hockey fans when he arrived in 2006.

“Getting arguably the world’s best goaltender … I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Ali said he also witnessed “the Luongo effect” as a coach, as more kids than ever before wanted to sign up to be goaltenders.

“Kids look up to the very best, and he was … he definitely touched a generation.”

In addition to setting franchise records, Luongo backstopped the Canucks to Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final and was in net when Canada’s men’s hockey team won gold at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

“Roberto has long been a franchise icon for the Vancouver Canucks,” team president Michael Doyle said in a release. “He is one of the best players in the history of the franchise.”

But while Luongo won over many fans, he sometimes alienated others, especially when his relationship with the Canucks turned sour toward the end of his time with the organization.

Much of this was documented in his humorous and sometimes acerbic Twitter (now X) account, @strombone1.