- Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald: Bruins Milan Lucic has a year left on his deal at $6 million. He’ll likely be looking for a long-term deal, one that could be tough to give a power forward. If the Bruins look to trade him, they should be able to get a very good return for him. Would the Oilers or Canucks be interested?
“It would be really, really hard to see myself in different colors, in a different jersey or a different city or a different organization,” Lucic said. “I hope to continue being a Bruin and I hope that they want me here as well. But it has to come from both sides and both ends. I can make any excuse I want right now about what went wrong personally this season and why I didn’t have a good start and all that type of stuff. I came back three months from an injury that usually takes six months to heal (wrist surgery), but it’s still in my mind not a good enough excuse.”
Lucic knows that he didn’t have a great season, one which doesn’t really warrant a contract extension.
“As far as a new contract extension goes, you could make the case that I still have something to prove to earn that,” he said. “I still have a year left on my deal and, whether I get an extension or not, I’m going to play as hard as I can to honor the last year I have on this contract. I believe that I showed I could still play at a high level. It’s just the fact that I need to find that consistency again in my game.”
Lucic has a limited no-trade clause which he provides a list of 15 teams that he’d accept a trade too.
“There’s never been any talks about me being moved,” Lucic said. “If you want better answers, I guess the guy to talk to would be (general manager) Peter (Chiarelli).”
- Nicholas Goss of NESN: Over the past two seasons, the Bruins fourth line has become more of liability than an asset. GM Peter Chiarelli has already let Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille know that they won’t be back. In-house candidates to fill out the fourth line could include: Brian Ferlin, Matt Lindblad, Justin Florek, Seth Griffith and Max Talbot. They could also go with more skilled options in Ryan Spooner and David Pastrnak. The Bruins need to add more speed to their game.
“It is a changing game,” Bruins defenseman Torey Krug said. “It’s more skill. Guys aren’t dropping the gloves as much. But there’s something to be said about a team having swagger, or a little bit of an edge and cockiness. I think that’s part of the game that our squad was missing this year.”
- Nicholas Goss: Pending UFA Carl Soderberg said that the Bruins are his choice regarding his future.