Probably need to add a top pick or great prospect with that still. THis guy is a literal boat anchor. 3M for a way below replacement level player is still 3M too much for any team that has any interest in winning games.
Sheesh, the only time I've really noticed Lucic (aside from being a giveaway machine) since his little goal spurt at the start of 2019 was when he gave energy to the Devils by fighting a no-name AHLer.
It's not 3M in actual salary though, that's the thing, for a team that's not spending to the cap anyway, that number is somewhat meaningless.
The actual money being paid is what's more important to those teams, having a higher cap hit than salary is actually beneficial to those teams because they want to hit the cap floor with less actual salary paid. It saves the team money.
If they trade him this summer on or after July 1 at 50% retained his actual salary becomes $2 million/season average.
If they trade him the summer after this one on or after July 1 at 50% retained his actual salary becomes $1.67 million/season average. So basically the team taking him gets a $3 mill cap hit, but really only $1.67 million in average salary ... that will probably work well for a cap floor team.
The *good* things about his contract are that it was front loaded and on July 1 there a signing bonus that brings down his remaining actual salary substantially to make it cheaper for a team to acquire him. A smart team would take advantage of that, the "Oilers way" would be to just blindly buy him out.
