Yesterday, I woke up to see the Oilers Twitterverse ablaze. There was a massive hullabaloo over some comments that Milan Lucic had said on Vancouver sports radio. Something about him wanting to play in Vancouver.
So I read a bit more on it and I was actually pretty floored by what he’d said. Here is the exact quote transcribed by former Beer League Heroes writer Zach Laing,
Cybulski: “You’re a former Vancouver Giant, you’re a guy who is from here. Could you ever see yourself finishing your career here in Vancouver?
Lucic: *laughs* It’s definitely something I wouldn’t rule out. It’s obviously something that could happen. Like you said, things haven’t gone well for me here with the Oilers, especially in the last year and a half. New GM, new coach which hasn’t been named yet, so you don’t know what their plan is moving forward and stuff like that. And uh, like I said it’s definitely something that could potentially happen. Whatever happens from 2011 and all that type of stuff for me is all water under the bridge as far as the tension after all that. It’s still a place I’d love to come home to, it’s still a place I like to come vist.
I think the Canucks right now are a very exciting team. I love what Jim (Benning) has done building the team through the draft and developing players. He’s done a great job of that, I think Travis (Green( has done a real great job as well from the coaching standpoint. Like I said, it’s a growing team, an exciting team and you never know what the future has in store for you.
I remember doing an interview back in 2007 after the Memorial Cup and I said ‘it would always be a dream of mine to some day play for the Canucks.’ You still have that kind inside you, you still have that dream of playing for your hometown team. Like I said, you never know what the future has in store for you and what could potentially happen.”
Woof!
First off, if I was a teammate, a coach, a scout, a GM, or even the owner of the Oilers, I would read that and immediately question this guy’s character and dedication to the hockey club he is currently contracted to for the next four years. Why in Sam’s Hell is he mowing Vancouver’s lawn? Why wasn’t his response something akin to, “Yeah, that’d be nice but I’m just concentrating on playing for the Oilers right now? It hasn’t been going to plans really but I still have confidence in my ability to help the club get back to where they belong, the Stanley Cup playoffs.”
Now, privately he might think, “F*ck that shithole. First chance I get, I’m leaving Edmonton.” But that’s on him and that’s for him. If he’d said something like I suggested, folks would rally around that. Other GMs would look at that and say, “That’s the Milan we know, right there and I might have interest in acquiring that sort of player.”
This is a player with an “A” on his chest. He’s part of the leadership group on the Oilers and here he is pumping the tires of a division rival team and right after getting his leg broke in a bar scuffle after getting blitzed right before game 82 versus the Oilers direct rival, the Calgary Flames…
To me, I hear a player trying to engineer his way out of Edmonton. The plans that were in place before no longer exist because Peter Chiarelli was removed as GM of the team. So now Milan is in a bit of a limbo…
Some will say he’s just being honest and that’s fine. But how many times have you heard a player of Lucic’s stature make comments like that? A guy who’s had it really tough for nearly two seasons, who’s already asked out of Edmonton and a person, who I feel, isn’t trusted on the ice anymore. I mean James Cybulski was asking him about ending his career in Vancouver, right? Well, what part of his career do you think we’re at right now?
I just think that he’d be doing everybody a favor by simply coming out and telling the truth instead of going around people’s backs and trying to be cute or clever about all of this. Just make the request to be moved public. It’s so painfully obvious that everything is getting to him in Edmonton and he wants out.
We do know that the Canucks were interested in his services before he signed with the Oilers back in 2016. My question is, why would they want him now? Are they so disillusioned with Brandon Sutter or Loui Eriksson that they’d be willing to move them and get Lucic in return? Is Milan supposed to play the role of the deterrent on that team? Couldn’t they just sign a player to a deal that is a fraction of the cost of Lucic’s?
The Cult of Hockey’s David Staples believes that Lucic is no better than a fourth line hockey player now and probably not a full-time one at this point.
TSN 1260’s Jason Gregor believes (skip ahead to around 8:30) that the Oilers should hold onto #27 in hopes that a better player than Loui Eriksson comes up… Yikes.
In that same clip above Jason Strudwick says that he thinks the best course of action is to spread Lucic around the league. Trade him to a team that needs to make the cap floor with a sweetener and retain salary, then that club can deal him off to another team with retained salary for a pick/prospect. Voila! 3rd team in the process gets a $2M Milan Lucic.
Personally, I’m a fan of Strudwick’s plan of action. The faster the Oilers can get this done, the faster the Oilers can move on from the Chiarelli era.
I’ve spent a lot of time being supportive of Looch during his time in Edmonton, but I think I’m at the end of my rope here. Whatever happens, I feel for the guy and I want him to be happy. I just feel like he’s going about things the wrong way.
The faster he’s moved out of Edmonton, the better for everyone.
