Lucic openly talks about leaving the Oilers and joining another NHL team

“It's something that could potentially happen in the future,” says the much maligned Oilers forward.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Lucic openly talks about leaving the Oilers and joining another NHL team
Zuma Press

Earlier today Edmonton Oilers forward Milan Lucic was on Vancouver’s Sportsnet 650 radio station and his comments about his situation with the Oilers and potentially moving on to his hometown team the Vancouver Canucks are causing quite a stir amongst those teams’ fanbases.

When asked point blank about the possibility of playing for the Canucks at some point in the future, Lucic seemed open, even enthusiastic, about the opportunity.

Check it out:



“It’s definitely something that potentially could happen… it’s still a place I’d love to come home to, it’s a place I love to visit. I think the Canucks right now are a very exciting team. I love what Jim (Benning)’s done as far as building a team within through the draft and developing players.”


Suffice it to say… Canucks fans and Oilers fans have a lot to chew on here.

With just six goals and 20 points to show for his $6 million salary last season, Lucic is one of, if not THE, most overpaid player in the entire NHL. The Oilers are facing a huge cap crunch this offseason and would love nothing more than to get Lucic’s contract off the books. The problem is, the Canucks have pricey extensions for young stars like Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson to handle in the next calendar year, so adding a player like Lucic is probably a non-starter. 

There’s always the chance that the Oilers buy out the remaining four years of Lucic’s contract and that he signs a hometown deal with the Canucks, but a buyout would save the Oilers just $2.5 million in cap savings over eight seasons so that hardly seems likely.