Milan Lucic is once again a member of the Boston Bruins, with the hulking veteran forward signing a one-year deal, the team announced Saturday.
The Bruins have yet to confirm the details of the contract, with Lucic's deal reportedly worth $1 million, according to TSN.
"It's really exciting for me and it's really exciting for my family," Lucic told TSN. "It's been eight years since I was a Bruin. ... My kids are older, and they get to watch me and remember me as a Bruin."
Lucic, 35, returns to the team that drafted him after spending eight seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. He scored seven goals and 19 points in 77 games with the Flames, who missed out on the final Western Conference wild-card spot by two points.
Going back to Boston does more than reunite Lucic with the franchise he won a Stanley Cup with in 2011. Lucic returns to the Bruins at a time when they are trying to remain a contender on a budget during what appears to be a period of significant change coming on the horizon.
The Bruins finished the 2022-23 season with the best regular-season record in NHL history -- 65-12-5 -- only to be eliminated in the first round by the Florida Panthers. Having such an early exit meant the Bruins had more time to think about an offseason that was expected to require careful navigation.
CapFriendly projected the Bruins would have less than $11 million in cap space. A week ago, the Bruins didn't even have that much space until they traded Taylor Hall and the rights to unrestricted free agent Nick Foligno to the Chicago Blackhawks, which allowed them to clear Hall's $6 million cap hit.
But that also came with the context that Tyler Bertuzzi, Tomas Nosek, Connor Clifton and Dmitry Orlov were pending unrestricted free agents and Trent Frederic and Jeremy Swayman were pending restricted free agents.
Plus, there were the questions regarding the respective futures of captain Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. Bruins president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney said earlier this week that the team was operating under the belief that both players would not return next season.
"We've told them, 'We understand you're going to take some time to make decisions, but we have to do our jobs too,'" Neely told reporters.
All those circumstances made the need to find experienced players on team-friendly deals an even greater priority.
Enter Lucic. Signing him to a one-year contract gives the Bruins a bottom-six forward at a price that allows them to maximize their cap space.
Lucic, while speaking to TSN, talked about his relationship with Bergeron before being asked whether Bergeron was coming back.
"You'd have to ask him," Lucic said with a laugh.
Lucic's reunion was only part of the Bruins' activity Saturday. The team announced it had signed forward Patrick Brown, center Morgan Geekie, and a pair of veterans in defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and winger James van Riemsdyk.
Brown spent last season with the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers, scoring eight goals and 12 points between the two teams. Geekie emerged to take a more active role in the Seattle Kraken's second season, with the 24-year-old scoring nine goals and 28 points in 68 games.
Shattenkirk, who starred at Boston University for three seasons, gives the Bruins another puck-mover, and he finished with four goals and 27 points with the Anaheim Ducks. As for van Riemsdyk, the veteran winger was in contention to be moved at the NHL trade deadline with the Flyers going in another direction. Instead, he remained with the Flyers and would ultimately become a pending unrestricted free agent who gives the Bruins a top-nine option who scored 12 goals and 29 points in 61 games last season.