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Murphy: Lucic Needs To Be Part Of 2011 Bruins Reunion Tour

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Is Milan Lucic the missing link to the 2011 Boston Bruins reunion tour Bruins team president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney are trying to book for the 2022-23 season?

Could Lucic be the key to the Bruins once again finding that grit and sandpaper Bruins fans have been longing for and the team could’ve used in the playoffs since the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs when Lucic threatened then Montreal Canadiens defenseman Alexei Emelin after the hated Habs beat the Bruins on TD Garden ice in Game 7 of the second round? If Sweeney can finally sign Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci before the 2022-23 regular season begins, then why not bring Lucic, a Neely throwback and a player Bruins fans still love back for the last hurrah of that famed 2011 Cup team?

Plenty of Boston Bruins past and present from the last 15 years reunited in Italy for former Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask‘s wedding this past week. From Rask, to Bergeron, to Krejci, to Brad Marchand, to Torey Krug, to Kevan Miller, to Adam McQuaid, to Charlie McAvoy, there was no shortage of not just the 2011 Bruins alumni but alumni from the 2013 and 2019 Stanley Cup teams that made it to the Stanley Cup Final. As one might expect for as tight knit a group as most of those Bruins teams were, the lads were having a grand time and partied as if they were still teammates. Lucic was living it up and more than happy to share the celebration and good times with fans.

It goes without saying that Milan Lucic isn’t the player that became the second coming of Neely when he arrived on the Boston scene in 2007-08 and scored 30 goals in the 2010-11 Stanley Cup season for the Boston Bruins. Or is he the player that went on to score 20 or more goals in four of his next six seasons played with the Bruins, Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers. Is he worth the $6 million cap hit he carries for the final season of the seven-year contract he’s riding out?

Nope. However, according to one NHL source Sunday night, Flames general manager Brad Treliving could be willing to eat some of that cap hit if the Bruins sweetened the deal and he doesn’t get whacked on contracts for forward Andrew Mangiapane and defenseman Oliver Kylington, two RFA’s headed for arbitration.

“Depending on what happens with those guys – and if [Darryl] Sutter lets him go because he loves him – I think Brad is willing to get creative with ‘Looch’, the source told Boston Hockey Now.

Based on the time Lucic had with his former teammates at Rask’s wedding week, it’s pretty obvious he’d be willing to make the Boston Bruins one of the eight teams he’d be willing to be traded to under his modified no-trade clause.

So is this Sweeney and Neely to Bergeron, Krejci and Lucic tomorrow?

 

 

 

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