Confirmed with Link: Lucic to LA Kings for 13th pick, Martin Jones and prospect

[Mathews28]

I'd say you're missing this:

- Lucic had one year left on a deal, was already overpaid, and would be looking to make even more.
- Jones is highly regarded in LA and probably has a shot to be an NHL starter, let alone a proven quality backup.
- I am pretty sure Colin Miller either led the AHL in points by defensemen or was near the top. He's a highly regarded prospect.

Exactly BP. This was a quality deal for the Bruins.

 

[Kaoz]

I'd say you're missing this:

- Lucic had one year left on a deal, was already overpaid, and would be looking to make even more.
- Jones is highly regarded in LA and probably has a shot to be an NHL starter, let alone a proven quality backup.
- I am pretty sure Colin Miller either led the AHL in points by defensemen or was near the top. He's a highly regarded prospect.

- Players get resigned all the time, a guy having one year left on his deal is not cause to trade him unless you know he won't resign with you and nothing of the sort has been said about Lucic. He loved it in Boston, hard to imagine he wouldn't have resigned. As for being overpaid, that is your opinion and your welcome to it. If you think Boston can replace his production or more importantly his impact for less then what he was making my opinion is you'll be sorely disappointed.
- I haven't seen the same reports you have and even if that were the case, that he had bonafide NHL starter upside, Boston already has Rask. They've had guys like Khudobin, Svedberg (who put up better numbers last season then Jones) all in the fold before and let them walk for nothing. Goaltenders go incredibly cheap, the Kings traded Scrivens who performed at a similar level to Jones for a 3rd (during the season) just last year for instance. It's probably because these types of goalies are often available for next to nothing during FA each year.
- Colin Miller was tied with TJ Brennan for 2nd in defensman scoring in the AHL. Both were behind Chris Wideman. I guess you only need to look at the guy he was tied with to see that that accomplishment doesn't necessarily mean he'll be able to translate it to the next level. That does seem promising though, but still, promising enough to trade Lucic?

Seems very much like a typical 3 quarters for a dollar Bruin deal, deals that without fail constantly get defended on here by Bruin fans and without fail constantly end up with the other team getting the best players.

 

[Ice Nine]

I'd say you're missing this:

- Lucic had one year left on a deal, was already overpaid, and would be looking to make even more.
- Jones is highly regarded in LA and probably has a shot to be an NHL starter, let alone a proven quality backup.
- I am pretty sure Colin Miller either led the AHL in points by defensemen or was near the top. He's a highly regarded prospect.

It seems to me people are either warm or cold on this trade based on how they valued Lucic as a Bruin.

I viewed Lucic truly as "foundational" to our team, both skilled and the most physical, who probably represented the Bruins style better than any other roster player.

That said, I understand the realities of our situation and was not surprised to see him dealt.

But the Martin Jones part of this does not make any sense to me. This is the established roster player we get in return, when back up goalies are incredibly easy to acquire in the NHL. There are always many, often with solid NHL experience, floating around. This is especially puzzling when goaltending was probably the last possible area in need of improvement on this team going into this draft.

And let's not forget: Jones needs to be signed. Based on his performance last year, he'll be looking for more than spare change. How can we afford 1.5-2m for a backup goaltender, when goaltending is nowhere near the biggest problem on this roster?

You say Jones is a good enough shot to be #1... that's true, and I've read he's looking to be a regular starter. So, are we moving Rask now?

The only way Jones makes sense, is if Rask is in play, or that Arizona fancied him and so he was supposed to be a part of the deal for the #3 pic that fell through. So, Sweeney may have an asset he never intended to keep.

 

[bp13]

- Players get resigned all the time, a guy having one year left on his deal is not cause to trade him unless you know he won't resign with you and nothing of the sort has been said about Lucic. He loved it in Boston, hard to imagine he wouldn't have resigned. As for being overpaid, that is your opinion and your welcome to it. If you think Boston can replace his production or more importantly his impact for less then what he was making my opinion is you'll be sorely disappointed.
- I haven't seen the same reports you have and even if that were the case, that he had bonafide NHL starter upside, Boston already has Rask. They've had guys like Khudobin, Svedberg (who put up better numbers last season then Jones) all in the fold before and let them walk for nothing. Goaltenders go incredibly cheap, the Kings traded Scrivens who performed at a similar level to Jones for a 3rd (during the season) just last year for instance. It's probably because these types of goalies are often available for next to nothing during FA each year.
- Colin Miller was tied with TJ Brennan for 2nd in defensman scoring in the AHL. Both were behind Chris Wideman. I guess you only need to look at the guy he was tied with to see that that accomplishment doesn't necessarily mean he'll be able to translate it to the next level. That does seem promising though, but still, promising enough to trade Lucic?

Seems very much like a typical 3 quarters for a dollar Bruin deal, deals that without fail constantly get defended on here by Bruin fans and without fail constantly end up with the other team getting the best players.

This comes down to a difference of opinion on Lucic.

I think Lucic will want $6.5-$7M in a long-term deal. I think he deserves that 25% of the time, and half of it the other 75% of the time. I wanted no part of paying him anything over $6M for anything more than 4 years. If you feel differently about him, and it's clear you do, we obviously can't discuss the merits of this trade.

All in all, I think they got very good value for him AND they dodged the bullet that was going to be his next contract. It's a clear win for me. As for the team now, they are clearly worse. However, if the goal was to free up money, dodge long-term potential killer contracts, they are on their way.

The key to this deal, and the Hamilton one, is what they do next. Will they make another major move or two to fix this defense and add some goals up front? We shall see.

 

[bp13]

It seems to me people are either warm or cold on this trade based on how they valued Lucic as a Bruin.

I viewed Lucic truly as "foundational" to our team, both skilled and the most physical, who probably represented the Bruins style better than any other roster player.

That said, I understand the realities of our situation and was not surprised to see him dealt.

But the Martin Jones part of this does not make any sense to me. This is the established roster player we get in return, when back up goalies are incredibly easy to acquire in the NHL. There are always many, often with solid NHL experience, floating around. This is especially puzzling when goaltending was probably the last possible area in need of improvement on this team going into this draft.

And let's not forget: Jones needs to be signed. Based on his performance last year, he'll be looking for more than spare change. How can we afford 1.5-2m for a backup goaltender, when goaltending is nowhere near the biggest problem on this roster?

You say Jones is a good enough shot to be #1... that's true, and I've read he's looking to be a regular starter. So, are we moving Rask now?

The only way Jones makes sense, is if Rask is in play, or that Arizona fancied him and so he was supposed to be a part of the deal for the #3 pic that fell through. So, Sweeney may have an asset he never intended to keep.

I think this is entirely possible. In fact, to me this was either the plan, or the plan was to slip picks and Jones in the draft and they failed to close it. As of today they are either still on their plan, or they may now be forced to deal Rask. Maybe we will find out soon.

 

[Ice Nine]

I think this is entirely possible. In fact, to me this was either the plan, or the plan was to slip picks and Jones in the draft and they failed to close it. As of today they are either still on their plan, or they may now be forced to deal Rask. Maybe we will find out soon.

Interesting. Yeah, we'll find out soon. As usual, bp13, I appreciate your stuff on here.

 

[PB37]

I think we all saw just how important a good backup goaltender can be for a team last year when we lacked one.

If the team isn't done cutting costs, then IMO the smart move to make would be to move Kelly and either Eriksson or Rask. I'd prefer to keep the latter two, but if we are truely entering an age of " good enough for now, but looking ahead into the future " then Rask would give us back the best assets.

 

[bbfan419]

I actually like this deal except that we retained salary, Lucic is still a name out there, but honestly not worth the $6M he is getting now, not to mention he will want at least $7M long term and he is just not the same player anymore, never was a good skater and offense and physical toughness have gone down and will get worst, some team will pay him and then be very sorry they got saddled with that contract.

What we got back Jones is a very capable backup and can fill in for Rask something we have not had in a while, Miller is going to be very good, a diamond in the rough type and the pick we used on Zboril who is one of the best two-way Dmen in the draft, so I think this deal will favour the Bruins for a long time to come, even if they trade Jones for another asset.

 

[Kaoz]

This comes down to a difference of opinion on Lucic.

I think Lucic will want $6.5-$7M in a long-term deal. I think he deserves that 25% of the time, and half of it the other 75% of the time. I wanted no part of paying him anything over $6M for anything more than 4 years. If you feel differently about him, and it's clear you do, we obviously can't discuss the merits of this trade.

All in all, I think they got very good value for him AND they dodged the bullet that was going to be his next contract. It's a clear win for me. As for the team now, they are clearly worse. However, if the goal was to free up money, dodge long-term potential killer contracts, they are on their way.

The key to this deal, and the Hamilton one, is what they do next. Will they make another major move or two to fix this defense and add some goals up front? We shall see.

I would actually say that it comes down to far more then a difference of opinion on Lucic's value honestly. I think it comes down to a fundamental difference of opinion on the long term strategy of building a dynasty.

"Wait and see what happens next before judging this deal" has essentially been the company line since the Joe Thornton trade, and it has been used to gloss over the fact that Boston time in and time out trades players at their lowest value and gets back multiple mediocre pieces in return that never come close to making the same impact.

We saw it with the Thornton deal, a generally accepted horrible return but one many Boston fans feel the need to justify because 7 years later Boston won the cup, as if trading Joe Thornton was the sole reason they were able to win it and they wouldn't have been able to win otherwise. Which of course conveniently ignores the fact that quite literally the entire roster outside of Patrice Bergeron was changed out and the front office staff had to be almost completely replaced. They decided to move him after a very questionable playoffs and after a long lockout (and then there was something about a broken fax machine or two) when his value couldn't have been lower.

We saw it with the Kessel deal which immediately made the Bruins a worse team. They waited until they were under the pressure of an offer sheet to get a rather controversial deal done involving only draft picks for what had been the most promising goal scorer Boston had seen since prime Glen Murray. Kessel went on to put up five 30+ goal seasons in Toronto. Luckily the draft picks worked out, but then...

We saw it with the Seguin deal. Trading him when again when his value was lowest after a rather offensively ineffective post season. At least with the Seguin deal Boston got back pieces that could be considered added depth, but there shouldn't have been any confusion as to who got the better player (there were, and there no doubt still is but there shouldn't be).

And now we've seen it again with both the Hamilton and Lucic trade. Say what you will about Lucic's contract or whether or not he'd be worth his future earnings that he hasn't yet committed to, he is an incredibly unique player and Boston traded him at the worst possible time. Cents on the dollar. The typical justification is being rolled out already (didn't gel with teammates, wasn't a good fit, sense of entitlement) and the typical optimistic fan base line that consistently goes hand in hand with it, "hey at least we added depth!". In order to have depth, you need to first have a solid roster. Otherwise you just have a hockey team chalk full of mediocrity no matter what kind of Boston spin is put on it.

 

[Ice Nine]

I would actually say that it comes down to far more then a difference of opinion on Lucic's value honestly. I think it comes down to a fundamental difference of opinion on the long term strategy of building a dynasty.

"Wait and see what happens next before judging this deal" has essentially been the company line since the Joe Thornton trade, and it has been used to gloss over the fact that Boston time in and time out trades players at their lowest value and gets back multiple mediocre pieces in return that never come close to making the same impact.

We saw it with the Thornton deal, a generally accepted horrible return but one many Boston fans feel the need to justify because 7 years later Boston won the cup, as if trading Joe Thornton was the sole reason they were able to win it and they wouldn't have been able to win otherwise. Which of course conveniently ignores the fact that quite literally the entire roster outside of Patrice Bergeron was changed out and the front office staff had to be almost completely replaced. They decided to move him after a very questionable playoffs and after a long lockout (and then there was something about a broken fax machine or two) when his value couldn't have been lower.

We saw it with the Kessel deal which immediately made the Bruins a worse team. They waited until they were under the pressure of an offer sheet to get a rather controversial deal done involving only draft picks for what had been the most promising goal scorer Boston had seen since prime Glen Murray. Kessel went on to put up five 30+ goal seasons in Toronto. Luckily the draft picks worked out, but then...

We saw it with the Seguin deal. Trading him when again when his value was lowest after a rather offensively ineffective post season. At least with the Seguin deal Boston got back pieces that could be considered added depth, but there shouldn't have been any confusion as to who got the better player (there were, and there no doubt still is but there shouldn't be).

And now we've seen it again with both the Hamilton and Lucic trade. Say what you will about Lucic's contract or whether or not he'd be worth his future earnings that he hasn't yet committed to, he is an incredibly unique player and Boston traded him at the worst possible time. Cents on the dollar. The typical justification is being rolled out already (didn't gel with teammates, wasn't a good fit, sense of entitlement) and the typical optimistic fan base line that consistently goes hand in hand with it, "hey at least we added depth!". In order to have depth, you need to first have a solid roster. Otherwise you just have a hockey team chalk full of mediocrity no matter what kind of Boston spin is put on it.

Also a great post.

One of the things I was truly looking forward to in the post-Chiarelli era, is the end of the classic Chiarelli depth trade. Take a big and valuable asset and send it off for a bunch of lesser depth pieces.

I was looking forward to Sweeney putting together a few assets to trade up, for a change.

And then... these trades happened.

This may be just what we do. We don't retain top end talent. We trade it. Forget the fact that the most successful team of this era, Chicago, has taken an entirely different approach. But that doesn't matter. There's always some backstory that nobody knows, but the defenders are willing to believe because the trades can't be justified on their face.

 

[TheReal13Linseman]

I actually like this deal except that we retained salary, Lucic is still a name out there, but honestly not worth the $6M he is getting now, not to mention he will want at least $7M long term and he is just not the same player anymore, never was a good skater and offense and physical toughness have gone down and will get worst, some team will pay him and then be very sorry they got saddled with that contract.

What we got back Jones is a very capable backup and can fill in for Rask something we have not had in a while, Miller is going to be very good, a diamond in the rough type and the pick we used on Zboril who is one of the best two-way Dmen in the draft, so I think this deal will favour the Bruins for a long time to come, even if they trade Jones for another asset.

Not sure why some are very ok with the Lucic deal; seems we could have dished him straight without taking so much salary back. Jones still needs a contract, too, right?

I "like" the fact that we moved him at this time; I "strongly dislike" the return (mostly the salary we have to pay) we got for him. The latter outweighs the former, IMO, and as such, I don't like the deal.

We're still in Cap Hell.

And, Chara at $7 million for the next 2 years really hurts.

 

[Speed Shooter]

I actually like this deal except that we retained salary, Lucic is still a name out there, but honestly not worth the $6M he is getting now, not to mention he will want at least $7M long term and he is just not the same player anymore, never was a good skater and offense and physical toughness have gone down and will get worst, some team will pay him and then be very sorry they got saddled with that contract.

What we got back Jones is a very capable backup and can fill in for Rask something we have not had in a while, Miller is going to be very good, a diamond in the rough type and the pick we used on Zboril who is one of the best two-way Dmen in the draft, so I think this deal will favour the Bruins for a long time to come, even if they trade Jones for another asset.

So...on Lucic salary retainment, now that Kings and Lombardi have "terminated" Richards contract -- is that just latest evidence of a GM taking advantage of Sweeney?

Lombardi gets Sweeney to eat 1/2 of Lucic salary because hey, massive Cap crunch in LA land, my haves are tied. Need the space man.

Sweeney abides and what do you know, 3 days later LA suddenly kills 80 percentroughly of Richards buyout and now has all this extra cash to play with that seemed to be so constructing in Friday.

Meanwhile, Sweeney is now paying Lucic half his contract to play for another team that is not so cash-strapped as led to believe..

Well played, Dean.

 

[PJ Kings Hockey]

I know your GM has been getting a lot of heat for the deals and draft choices of the past few days. But Katie Strang reported that Lombardi found out about the border incident one hour into the draft when he was still having Richards trade negotiations with GMs Chiarelli and Treliving. They confirmed that he came to them about what he just found out and immediately broke off any trade talks. I don't think Sweeney's been had in this deal. But I know Dean Lombardi's had better days...make that better years.

It's been a crazy day for everyone. Crazy.

 

[Ladyfan]

Still hate the Looch deal

 

[ashnathan]

I know your GM has been getting a lot of heat for the deals and draft choices of the past few days. But Katie Strang reported that Lombardi found out about the border incident one hour into the draft when he was still having Richards trade negotiations with GMs Chiarelli and Treliving. They confirmed that he came to them about what he just found out and immediately broke off any trade talks. I don't think Sweeney's been had in this deal. But I know Dean Lombardi's had better days...make that better years.

It's been a crazy day for everyone. Crazy.

Im confused...border incident? Can you fill us in ?

 

[774EVER]

So, the return for Lucic or the return for Oshie?

 

[billings21]

So...on Lucic salary retainment, now that Kings and Lombardi have "terminated" Richards contract -- is that just latest evidence of a GM taking advantage of Sweeney?

Lombardi gets Sweeney to eat 1/2 of Lucic salary because hey, massive Cap crunch in LA land, my haves are tied. Need the space man.

Sweeney abides and what do you know, 3 days later LA suddenly kills 80 percentroughly of Richards buyout and now has all this extra cash to play with that seemed to be so constructing in Friday.

Meanwhile, Sweeney is now paying Lucic half his contract to play for another team that is not so cash-strapped as led to believe..

Well played, Dean.

if you hate sweeney that much i guess you can spin anything into a negative. this trade was a no brainer homerun from the bruins point of view.

 

[The Special K]

I think that people need to keep in mind that the whole salary retention by the Bruins is for one season....not like the Leafs who will be paying 1.8 mill for a bazillion years.

it really is not an issue.

 

[bb_fan]

So...on Lucic salary retainment, now that Kings and Lombardi have "terminated" Richards contract -- is that just latest evidence of a GM taking advantage of Sweeney?

Lombardi gets Sweeney to eat 1/2 of Lucic salary because hey, massive Cap crunch in LA land, my haves are tied. Need the space man.

Sweeney abides and what do you know, 3 days later LA suddenly kills 80 percentroughly of Richards buyout and now has all this extra cash to play with that seemed to be so constructing in Friday.

Meanwhile, Sweeney is now paying Lucic half his contract to play for another team that is not so cash-strapped as led to believe..

Well played, Dean.

Or maybe the only way to get the first, the defensive prospect and the goalie was to eat some salary for a year.

Well played , Donny

 

[Gee Wally]

Great, great deal for the Bruins.

 

[BostonBob]

So, the return for Lucic or the return for Oshie?

- Marin Jones is better than Troy Brouwer ( Huge Advantage to Boston especially when you figure in the return Boston got from San Jose for Jones )
- 2015 1st round pick is better than 2016 3rd round pick ( Huge Advantage to Boston even if you didn't like the selection of Jakub Zboril )
- Colin Miller is probably closer to playing in the NHL right now than Phoenix Copely ( Slight Advantage to Boston )
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I'd say Boston got a lot nore value for Lucic than St. Louis did for Oshie.

 

[BB88]

I like Lucic and when he plays it's beautiful, but it was time to let go and we got a killer return.

I saw some reporters posting on twitter that apparently Lucic would like to get 8y deal and Sweeney's max was going to be 5y for him, also Shawn Hutcheon said that the feeling was that Lucic was gone after the season.

This trade can be basically looked at 2015 1st+2016 1st+ 2 elite skating prospects, + Beleskey signed at 3.8 saving us 2.5-3M cap after the next season, again to me this was a killer return and right time to let go of him.

The next contract+ the pressure which it would have brought would have cause a lot of troubles for the Bruins.

 

[Jean_Jacket41]

- Marin Jones is better than Troy Brouwer ( Huge Advantage to Boston especially when you figure in the return Boston got from San Jose for Jones )
- 2015 1st round pick is better than 2016 3rd round pick ( Huge Advantage to Boston even if you didn't like the selection of Jakub Zboril )
- Colin Miller is probably closer to playing in the NHL right now than Phoenix Copely ( Slight Advantage to Boston )
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I'd say Boston got a lot nore value for Lucic than St. Louis did for Oshie.

And Oshie has 2 years remaining to his deal while Lucic will be UFA at the end of the season.

A+

 

[PlayoffBeard365]

http://www.thefourthperiod.com/columnists/bernstein/db150712.html

 

[FROMSHORETOCHARA]

Still hate the Looch deal

Me too! The San Jose follow thru was good value but Lucic IS what I want in a bruin. And we r paying half his salary. Dumb move and when he is a beast a lot of people going to look dumb. Oh wait, scratch that they will just say it was still a good move cause he wouldn't do it here.

Like seguin and boy chuck and wheeler and .....