Veteran grinder Milan Lucic still has some hockey left in the tank and will be looking for a new home in 2023-24. While reports had connected him to playing for his hometown Vancouver Canucks, it now appears he’ll be joining another nostalgic franchise for him, per CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal – the Boston Bruins.
Coming off a monster seven-year, $42MM deal, Lucic won’t command much on the open market and isn’t suited for anything above a fourth-line role, especially for a team with playoff aspirations. Boston is in need of cheap forward depth, but it’s fair to question the use of precious cap space on a veteran who can provide little offense, especially with hard-nosed Trent Frederic already occupying the token bottom-six grinder role. It would be a nice career bookend for Lucic, though, who won a Stanley Cup in Boston in 2011 and had 342 points in 566 games there between 2007 and 2015.
More tidbits before the free agent market opens on Saturday:
- One of the longest-tenured netminders in the league is looking to extend his career in 2023-24, but it could be with a new team. Player agent Allan Walsh said today his client, Jaroslav Halak, will hit the unrestricted free agent market on July 1 and won’t re-sign with the New York Rangers before then. Halak, 38, is now sorely planted in “serviceable backup” territory, but there are certainly worse options for the No. 2 spot on your depth chart. The veteran of 17 NHL seasons posted a 10-9-5 record, .903 save percentage, and one shutout in 24 starts (and one relief appearance) with the Rangers this season.
- The Dallas Stars don’t have a lot of cap flexibility this offseason, and it was expected they’d only be able to re-sign one or two depth forwards hitting the open market. That’s holding true, as after the Stars signed Evgenii Dadonov to a two-year extension yesterday, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports both Max Domi and Luke Glendening will hit the open market. The Stars have $5.1MM in projected cap space, per CapFriendly, and still need an extension for pending restricted free agent Ty Dellandrea.
Lucic is a waste of a contract and a waste of a roster spot.
No way, as a Bs fan I would love to see Lucic back on a $750,000 1 yr type of contract. Frederick is a RFA, I could see him moved in a deal as he is going to get a his old salary doubled at a minimum.
Blackhawks should bring Domi back.
Solid player, plays with a lot of grit, and can be an effective scorer. He has a connection with the coach Luke Richardson.
Domi should come back. The Hawks have the Cap Space to give him a 3 year deal to give him some security. I think the article hit it right on the head at 3 years at 4.5 to 5 mil a year gets it done. Plus the Hawks are still about 10 million below the Cap floor even after the Hall and Foligno deals. It makes too much sense not to happen.
Ugh. Loosh was great for us back in the day, but that day was a decade ago. I can’t imagine what he could do for us that Toporowski or Lauko couldn’t, on minimum salaries yet.
Neither Toporoski or Lauko can beat up Pat Maroon or Tom Wilson.
… and you know this how?
Quite aside from that you don’t win hockey games by beating up Pat Maroon or Tom Wilson. You win hockey games by putting more goals in the other guys’ net than they do into your own. This isn’t the 1980s any more.