Rumor: Milan Lucic may be headed for a buyout.

This is perhaps a low point in the career of Edmonton Oilers veteran forward Milan Lucic.

There is not a single member of the Edmonton Oilers fan base that has not realized by now that former Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli was quite seriously misguided when he handed Lucic a massive $42 million dollar contract in the summer of 2016. That contract would span the next 7 years of Lucic's career but after the first 3 seasons of that contract it appears to have been a massive misstep on the part of the Oilers organization.

Lucic has simply not been good for the Oilers through his first 3 seasons, although his 1st of the 3 was by far his best. Lucic put up a respectable 23 goals and 27 assists for 50 points in his first season as an Oiler, but at $6 million per season you would hope for more, and things have only gotten worse since then. Lucic's performance has fallen off a cliff in the past 2 seasons and none was worse than the 6 goals and 14 assists for 20 points he produced this season. That's $300,000 that the Oilers paid him per point last season and you don't need me to explain why that simply is not good enough.

The problem of course is that Chiarelli loaded Lucic's contract with signing bonuses. Lucic never earns more than $4 million in base dsalary during any single season of his current contract, and in some years he earns as little as $1 million in base salary. This was designed to protect the player from a potential buyout, something that many believe has made his contract effectively buyout proof. As it turns out that is apparently not the case at all, at least not as far as the Oilers are concerned. 

In his most recent 31 Thoughts column Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that, prior to the hiring of Ken Holland, the Oilers were in fact contemplating the possibility of buying out Lucic's current contract. From Friedman:

Prior to Holland’s hiring, the Oilers were considering a Milan Lucic buyout if there’s not a workable trade. The true cap relief would be in years five to eight, when his payout drops to $625,000. The next four seasons would be stiff. One year ago, other clubs said Edmonton’s asks were unrealistic. We’ll see this time.

The tone of Friedman's comments would appear to indicate that the plan remains to get Lucic out of Edmonton, one way or another. If Peter Chiarelli or Keith Gretzky were asking for too much in a trade then perhaps newly appointed general manager Ken Holland will be more realistic in his demands. Then again perhaps, like his predecessors before him, Holland will realize that Lucic is not worth the trouble and will pull the trigger on an actual buyout of his contract.