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2013-14 Player Preview: Milan Lucic |
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Ty Anderson
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After falling just short of their second Stanley Cup in three years, the Boston Bruins are charged up and ready to start their 2013-14 campaign.
With realignment giving the Northeast Division a new look and name, HockeyBuzz.com's Ty Anderson will take a look at the expectations of every big league Bruin for this year and beyond with his player previews.
Next up, top-line forward and face of the B's attack, Milan Lucic.
The Basics
Name: Milan Lucic (No. 17)
Position: Left Wing
Height and weight: 6-foot-4, 220 pounds.
How he got here: Drafted by Boston with the 50th overall pick in 2006. The pick originally belonged to the Edmonton Oilers but was part of the three-piece return package for Sergei Samsonov sent to the Bruins in a March 2006 trade with the Oilers.
The Stats
- Lucic had as many goals (7) in 22 playoff games as he did in 46 regular season games this past year.
- 271 of Lucic’s 600 penalty minutes in the NHL have been assessed in games against division opponents (which now includes the Red Wings, Panthers, and Lightning). That’s alotta rival hate.
- Since the 2010-11 season, Lucic has scored 63 goals for the Bruins. Only second line forward and noted instigator Brad Marchand (67) has more.
The Money
In 2013-14, Lucic starts year one of a three-year extension that will pay him $18 million dollars in total, with a $6 million cap-hit. A significant bump from his old $4.083 hit from 2010-13, the raise makes the 25-year-old winger the highest paid Bruin forward, and the club’s third highest paid player behind goaltender Tuukka Rask and captain Zdeno Chara.
Directly, the contract (from a dollar point of view) is comparable to Calgary’s Michael Cammalleri, Edmonton superstars Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall, and even Penguin-turned-Hurricane Jordan Staal. As for what kind of player Lucic is, however, comparables such as the Flyers’ Scott Hartnell ($4.75 million cap-hit), David Backes ($4.5 million cap-hit), and David Clarkson ($5.25 million cap-hit) bring about an entire different discussion and question for fans -- Is Lucic overpaid?
I’ve always been in the camp that Lucic isn’t overpaid because he’s simply more than a player. For years, fans in Boston wanted a player that resembled the playing style of Cam Neely. For years, they salivated over the thought of Rick Nash in a Bruins sweater. And even with Nash in New York and never coming to the Bruins, I can still tell you that Lucic is the closest player in today’s NHL that you’ll ever see realistically compared to Neely.
For Boston, Lucic is more than just a player. He’s an identity. He’s perhaps the most intimidating forward in the entire league, hits like a freight train, and is a huge body when screening goaltenders. Lucic essentially puts casual fans’ butts in the seats. Always has, always will. He’s a tremendous value for the B’s given every general manager’s desire to find ‘the next Lucic’, and if the Bruins didn’t want to pay him $6 million a year, some 29 other teams undoubtedly would.
But even if you consider him overpaid, he’s a top-line player for the Bruins, and that kind of talent costs money. With 97 goals and 239 points in just 405 games with Boston, there’s really no way that you could say that Lucic is overpaid by league standards, even if he enters this season as the Bruins’ most expensive forward.
The Past
All things considered, Lucic was pretty terrible to watch last season. Well, for the most part. Completely off the ice during the near four-month lockout due to the birth of his family’s first child, Lucic was immediately thrown to the wolves of the Boston media after he showed up to camp ‘out of shape’ and became the undesired face of the Black-and-Gold’s hit-or-miss offensive attack. Finishing the year with just seven goals and 27 points in 46 contests -- and even forced to sit out as a healthy scratch for two straight games in April -- the postseason brought about a return to form for the 6-foot-4 power forward. In essence, Lucic went back to being … well… Lucic.
Getting back to ‘his game’ in the Bruins’ first round series against Toronto, Lucic’s ability to intimidate opposing defensemen and get to the front of the net was downright absurd, and historic, as the Bruins’ three-goal comeback against the Leafs in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals got its motor started with Lucic’s net-front presence.
Charing on en route to a 7-goal, 19-point run over the Bruins’ 22-game playoff run, Lucic boosted his playoff totals in the Hub on up to 22 goals and 54 points in just 84 contests. Money Milan’s return?
We’ll just have to see...
The Future
It’s tough to picture just how Lucic will play given the departure of his linemate and bromance of three years, Nathan Horton, who left for Columbus via free agency this summer. But if they were looking for a guy to fill Horton’s role adequately and keep the chemistry between Lucic and David Krejci primarily intact, my goodness, was Jarome Iginla the guy to ever get.
With a player that Lucic has modeled his game after on the opposite wing, you can definitely expect to see Lucic play more of a facilitator role in 2013-14, with cross-ice dishes to No. 12 becoming the norm. Naturally, with that, it seems unlikely to watch No. 17 pot 30 goals for the second time in his career this year. But how about smashing his career-high mark of 35 helpers? Seems doable.
As the preseason has shown, there’s definitely some great chemistry in the works with 17-46-12, and with that continuing on into the regular season, I’m pegging the 25-year-old Lucic to have a career year, with 25 goals and 39 assists and 115 penalty minutes in 80 games.
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