Milan Lucic signs a new contract in the NHL: fans outraged
The New Jersey Devils have reportedly signed former Bruins forward Milan Lucic to a professional tryout contract despite his checkered past.
The Hockey Writer founder Jesse Courville broke the news this evening, revealing that he has heard about the move from Bob Stauffer, a Sportsnet reporter who covers the Oilers.
One fan joked that he thought the Oilers would have signed the veteran forward. After all, the Oilers did bring in Stan Bowman as their new general manager this summer and he has a questionable past to say the least due to his role in the coverup of the Kyle Beach scandal during his time with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Furthermore, Devils fans appear to not be very happy about this move. Obviously, signing Lucic will bring bad press to the team due to his domestic violence incident that occurred last season and even then, his role on the team will not be very important. It just as easily could be filled by a younger player, perhaps even one of the team's prospects as the Devils remain a young team with lots of talent coming through their system both on defense and up front.
Milan Lucic played in just four games last season and recorded two points. In the previous year he tallied 7 goals and 19 points in 77 games for the Calgary Flames. He was also a minus 13 and had 43 penalty minutes. At 36, the points won't be coming any easier and his physical playstyle has certainly worn away at him, limiting his effectiveness, even just from a physical standpoint. Even if he is able to stage a comeback, would it be worth it to the Devils? That will likely be a high bar for him to achieve at this point in his career.
EDITOR UPDATE:
New Jersey Devils reporter James Nichols reached out to the Devils and they shut down Stauffer's reports.
Source: HockeyReference
Milan Lucic career Statistics
| POLL | ||
Do you think Milan Lucic will actually play any regular-season NHL games for the New Jersey Devils next season? | ||
| Yes | 57 | 25.9 % |
| No | 163 | 74.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
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