The Boston Bruins have been paced by rugged power forward Milan Lucic in recent years.
Perhaps no player beyond current Bruins president Cam Neely has ever embodied the Bruin Way better than Lucic, a guy whose physical dominance is matched only by his competitive spirit and finishing ability.
It was particularly troubling then, for Bruins fans, when during a down season for the entire Boston squad in 2014-15, Lucic seemed to take one of the biggest downturns in on-ice production. The stats he finished the year with - 18 goals, 26 assists - weren't bad, but they don't tell the full story of Lucic and the Bruins' lost season.
While the 2014-15 playoff miss has thus far resulted only in the firing of Peter Chiarelli and the hiring of Don Sweeney as GM, it seems, according to the latest report, that Lucic's future is being given great consideration in Boston.
"I think the most interesting one out there is Lucic because I do believe Boston is at least considering the possibility that they would do it. He's a guy who is an unrestricted free agent after next year. He didn't have a great year. His number is already 6. What's it going to be," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said Monday, while appearing on Calgary's Sportsnet 960, via TodaysSlapShot.com.
"I think in a lot of ways, he is the prototypical Bruin and they have talked about how they want to get back to being the Bruins, but I think there's also concern about the mileage on his body and the fact he didn't have a great year."
Lucic appeared in 81 games last season, but simply never seemed like himself, prompting some to wonder if he was being afflicted by some undisclosed injury, but he didn't undergo any offseason procedures. Despite his down year and despite the purported concern from the Bruins brass, it sounds like Lucic was drawing ample interest when his named was bandied about at the NHL trade deadline this season.
"When I asked Boston GM Don Sweeney about Lucic a couple of weeks ago, he called the winger a 'foundational player,' and I don't think that's changed (Sweeney declined to discuss this situation on Saturday)," Friedman wrote in his 30 Thoughts column for Sportsnet.ca recently. "But, as another GM put it, 'If you're not listening, you're not doing your job.' When there were rumors about his availability last season (which Boston shot down), there was definite interest. From outside, Lucic's future seems like an incredibly complex internal discussion for the Bruins. He is what their identity is supposed to be. He makes $6 million now. What's the next number?"
Therein lies the biggest issue for Sweeney and Neely.
It's not just what kind of player Lucic is now at 27 - it's what kind of player will he be in 2016-17 when his current deal runs out and he's another season closer to age 30 and likely looking to cash in on what could prove to be his final major deal in the NHL.
Power forwards aren't often long for the league - their physical, hard-nosed style of play is simply not conducive to longevity. While there's every possibility that Lucic could buck the trend and come back stronger next season, it would certainly behoove Sweeney and Neely to gauge trade interest this offseason when he has a year remaining on his deal and see just what they could possibly get in return for the big, bad Bruin's services.
