Former Bruin and current King Milan Lucic has his sights set on another Stanley Cup now that he's taken his talents to Los Angeles. While appearing on an episode of TSN 1410 recently, Lucic stated his belief that the Kings remain Cup-worthy, despite a tumultuous end to the 2014-15 season and some significant changes once the offseason rolled around, but he also made some pretty interesting comments about his NHL future. Lucic, a Vancouver native, told the hosts that it is his "dream" to play for his hometown Canucks.
"I honestly don't know what's going to happen moving on," Lucic told TSN 1410, via Jared Clinton of The Hockey News. "I mean I have one year left on my contract, and there's a possibility that I can hit the [unrestricted free agent] market. It's obviously something that's been a dream of mine since I've been a kid, is to play in your hometown and play for the Canucks, but right now the main focus is going down to L.A. and trying to make the most of that."
Lucic has a single season remaining on his current three-year, $18 million deal at a cap hit of $3.25 million. His salary is, of course, actually higher, but the Bruins retained some of the value in his deal. With Lucic needing a new deal after this year, Clinton makes the argument that he could potentially become a casualty of a cap crunch in Los Angeles, where star center Anze Kopitar, and budding forward Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli also will be in need of new contracts in the near future.
Of course, Lucic's performance in 2015-16 will go a long way towards determining how long his tenure in LA is. If he plays well and improves on a down year last year, in which he managed just 18 goals and 26 assists, he should be in line for a contract that pays him somewhere in the vicinity of the $6 million AAV he currently makes. With the Canucks losing Radim Vrbata's $5 million cap hit and Dan Hamhuis' $4.5 million, they're likely to have something in the range of $17 million in cap space this offseason, per Clinton.
Then again, the Kings will also be shedding ample salary and will have plenty of room, along with the first crack at, signing Lucic.
There's no doubting that the big, powerful Lucic would be a fit for the strength-starved Canucks - it's simply a matter of how 2015-16 shakes out and, probably most importantly, which team offers Lucic the most money and the longest term.
