Friedman: Lucic doesn't want to play in Canada anymore?

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Lets be real, Lucic could have, ya know, not chosen to play in Canada. Nobody put a gun to his head and forced him to sign in Edmonton.

He has nobody but himself to blame for all the criticism he's receiving now. He CHOSE to play in Canada, he grew up in Canada so he knows full well how rabid these fanbases are and he should know that he was going to draw criticism after completely dogging it the last 3-4 months of the season. I'm sure it sucks for him and his family to get harassed and I'm not condoning the idiotic actions of these social media tough guys but he chose this fate so now he must deal with the repercussions.

Looks like another reason for players to avoid Edmonton.

 

[stuffradio]

Would the Oilers be interested in Lucic for Eriksson? I know it’s still Canada and that may not sit well with Milan, but here’s the thing: he may not want to be in Canada, but teams aren’t exactly lining up to take him.

I'm not interested in having Lucic on my team.

 

[Jamin]

So what you're saying is, if you make a lot of money you no longer get to have feelings. Got it.

No but the money is good compensation.

Lots of people have crappy jobs with bosses that don't care about feelings.

Mrs Luccic never has to work a day in her life, she should be able to handle some stress.

Lucic got 6 million last year and had like 2 points after Christmas. Anyone else would be unemployed.

So yea suck it up buttercup seems fitting

 

[ManofSteel55]

Looks like another reason for players to avoid Edmonton.

I'm sure after the backlash over Pronger, and the way some fans complained about Hall and Eberle (both before and after they were traded), I'm sure that most players already know that a lot of vocal Oiler fans are a-holes.

 

[ManofSteel55]

The oilers will be utter fools not to make a deal that will actually help the team in some way. He wants to be moved? Tough luck unless something comes along that is palatable. Eat the mistake, do not compound it.

This. Chiarelli needs to stop losing trades, and he sure as hell isn't going to break even on this one unless he finds a team in the exact same situation in needing to move an overpaid and underperforming player. Keep him, tell him he needs to work on things to play his value up, and then he'll be traded.

 

[Petes2424]

I don't think it will. Will Chiarelli need to take another bad contract back? Probably. But we've seen it time and time again - people on this board think a high pick is the price to move a bad contract, and it doesn't happen.

This is a pretty massive contract though. I hope it's not the 10OA but it's going to be something significant. Or let's just say, they're not winning the trade, except in the fact they'll be freeing up money at some point.

I think the best they could hope for is trading him for someone who is at $4+ for a year (or two) while giving up something else of value. That saves them 3 years of Lucic money and a couple of million over next two. The question becomes, what that something is?

Let's say it's Gustav Nyquist at $4 million for a year. Gives them a player with some speed on the wing. Detroit, who will probably be a team who can bury some money in a year or two might make that type of deal. It becomes, what else would they want? The Oilers 2nd and a prospect? I'm not sure that would be enough. Burying a contract for 5 years is a long time and there's not many teams who'd be willing..

 

[A91]

Looks like another reason for players to avoid Edmonton.

We don't want players that don't want to be here. If you cant handle playing in a hockey city don't sign for one.
Sekera has no problem with the pressure and hes making almost the same as Looch.

 

[HockeyAnalystGenius]

Lucic + 10 choice pick + Yamahato for Torie Krug

 

[GoJetsGo55]

My heart bleeds for the man getting $600,000 for each goal he scores.

 

[member 157595]

In defense of Edmonton fans, if a player isn't performing to the capacity his contract demands it is completely understandable why they'd turn on him. It's one thing if a player is busting his ass and playing his game but not getting the bounces...it's another thing entirely to not bring maximum effort and show the ones that pay your salary that you care about them.

I understand that it's not Milan Lucic's fault that Peter Chiarelli offered him a bloated contract, but when he signed it, he agreed to be paid a certain amount of money to provide a service, and it's certainly not uncommon in the real world to face repercussions when you do not provide services expected of your pay grade.

 

[McFlyingV]

Lucic at 4.5 and #10 for Phaneuf and #20

So the Oilers lose almost another million in cap space, and downgrade from 10 to 20? Lol, no thanks. If the 10 was ever involved in a trade with Lucic (and it won't be) there wouldn't be any retention or salary coming back.

 

[StreetHawk]

We don't want players that don't want to be here. If you cant handle playing in a hockey city don't sign for one.
Sekera has no problem with the pressure and hes making almost the same as Looch.

Significant others have to avoid social media. It sucks, but stay away from the ones that you can’t set as private. Only use the ones that it’s just you and your friends and family can see your posts.

Don’t follow your significant others social media. Too many keyboard warriors out there in any market.

Can’t feel too sorry for them since lucic took the term and money in Edmonton. Could have signed elsewhere in the USA for less. Sacrifice millions to live a quiet lifestyle away from the rink.

Didn’t lucic talk to players on how the life is in Edm? Guess he never considered that his play might go down in the final couple of years of his deal?

 

[Jay haller]

Lucic for Seabrook

Pass at least Seabrook can still be a late stage Sheldon souray type.

Lucic is a 4th line grinder at this point

 

[JuniorNelson]

I do not think the player realizes how dire slowness is in the modern game. His market is much smaller than anticipated, I'll bet. If there are five US teams interested I'd be shocked. My point, Lucic is asking a lot of the Oilers if they have to pay additional costs.

 

[These Are The Days]

Only Peter Chiarelli could so masterfully orchestrate such a mess I applaud you man. You give me the strength to go on with my life knowing that no matter what I do I will NEVER screw up that badly

 

[Jay haller]

Me being shocked when a 28+ year old powerforward with regressing play signs a major contract and fails to live up to it 2 years in

This one is squarely on Chiarelli though

Here’s thing he was grossly overpaid in 2013 when he signed his previous deal.

 

[Jay haller]

It's just like Pronger!

Except nobody wants him and Oiler fans won't shed a single tear when he's gone.

Except Pronger was actually good

 

[McFlyingV]

I do not think the player realizes how dire slowness is in the modern game. His market is much smaller than anticipated, I'll bet. If there are five US teams interested I'd be shocked. My point, Lucic is asking a lot of the Oilers if they have to pay additional costs.

Lucic just needs to stop weeping and put some f***ing effort in. He'd likely have a much better chance of being traded right now if he hadn't weeped and gave up after Christmas last year. Some of that might have been conditioning, but his play was quite solid before Christmas and then fell off a cliff when he checked out. He can still be a top 6 forward even with his lack of speed, he just needs to get off his lazy ass and stop feeling sorry for himself.

 

[780il]

Oilers fans are gonna say no but from Avs perspective:

Lucic @ 4.5M cap hit + 10th ov + 2019 2nd for 2018 3rd.

Hell no

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

cool. i wonder if he'd have the freedom to choose where he wanted to live if he wasnt born, raised and trained as a hockey player in Canada.

 

[780il]

Im fully expecting this to happen
Lucic (after July 1, bonuses paid) + 4th or 5th
For
Rask

 

[mouser]

What about this?
-Lucic is buyout proof for EDM due to his signing bonus. CAR apparently wants more toughness.
-CAR sends Rask to EDM for a late round pick+Future considerations @ the draft
-EDM buys out Victor Rask (4M AAV x 4 years/25 years old) prior to June 30th, they take a cap penalty of roughly 666k for the next eight seasons.
-After July 1st (or whenever Lucic is paid his 3.5M signing bonus), Lucic waives his NTC to be sent to CAR. CAR gives EDM a late pick. EDM retains roughly 1.33M which is roughly 22.7 percent of Lucic's cap hit.
-After his bonus is paid, Lucic is owed 22.5M spread out over the next five years. EDM retaining covers almost 5M of this remaining salary, meaning CAR only owes Lucic 17.5M over the next 5 seasons, which is a real money AAV of 3.5M. CAR effectively pays Lucic a lower salary than they were paying Rask, with the only caveat being Lucic is signed 1 year longer.
-EDM walks away with roughly 2M on the books for the next five seasons, and then roughly 666k on the books for three more seasons after that. A financial obligation that is LESS than what a Lucic buyout would have been if he had no signing bonuses. In turn, EDM frees up about 4M worth of cap for the next five seasons, a significant amount considering Lucic is buyout proof and has a full NMC.

Simpler solution: do it as one trade after July 1st. Edmonton just has to make sure they have a player file for arbitration so they can use the 2nd buyout window.

 

[ThreeOfAPerfectPair]

I always chuckle when I read guys who are so mentally fragile they can’t handle playing in Canada so they want to go hide and become relatively unknown on some American team in a less pressure environment. IMO if a guy feels that way, he’s the last type of guy I would ever want on our team.

“I think he wants to get out of Canada. I don’t think he wants to play here anymore. I think that’s another situation where the wife has seen how much heat the player has taken, I think, and isn’t always comfortable with that. I think he wants to get out of Canada, but you’ve got to find a willing partner and even if I wanted Lucic I would be saying to the Oilers, ‘What premium are you going to be giving me to do it.’

Lets not get too carried away now.

 

[Wingsfan 4 life]

Assuming there's any truth to what Friedman is speculating here, a trade out of Canada ain't gonna change anything IMO. In fact, I bet the heat gets worse because of it. We're in the age where social media and the 24 hour sports news channels are on top of every little thing a player does or doesn't do exactly up to snuff. Changing from area code to zip code isn't gonna stop it.

Edit: Just noticed this was Friedman, not Bobby Mac. Should have known by all the "I think's".

 

[BigTime99]

Why would u buy out rask? Why not just play him on drai lw?