Is Lucic a fit for Oilers?

Will the Oilers sign Milan Lucic?

Should they?

Peter Chiarellli knows Lucic very well from their time together in Boston. He turns 28 next Tuesday, and he will likely be looking for a six or seven year deal in free agency, if he doesn’t re-sign with the LA Kings before July 1st.

Lucic currently has a $6 million cap hit, and giving him more wouldn’t make sense to me. I don’t see him being more productive the next six years, as he has been in the previous six.

He is a proven offensive player, and he’s a physical beast. He is a true power forward.

His last six years look like this.

If he played alongside Connor McDavid, he could top 60 points again. He is more proven than Patrick Maroon as a full-time top-six forward, but having both wouldn’t be a bad thing.

The Oilers already have Taylor Hall, Benoit Pouliot and Maroon on the left side. If the sign Lucic, one of them needs to go, and Pouliot would seem the most likely.

Adding Lucic would help, no doubt, but he doesn’t fill the obvious void, right defence. 

However, teams are allowed to talk to potential UFAs on June 25th, and if Chiarelli gets a sense Lucic is serious about coming here he could make some trades on day two of the draft to ensure he has space for Lucic.

I would only look at adding Lucic after they’ve addressed the defence issues. Adding another left winger, even one as proven as Lucic, won’t help them win if Chiarelli hasn’t addressed the defence first.

The other question is term and salary? As I said earlier, it wouldn’t be wise to give him a significant raise, because odds tell us the chances of him being more productive in the next six years than he’s been in his previous six are low.

Would you sign Lucic? 

The better question might be, who is a better fit for the Oilers, Milan Lucic, or right winger Kyle Okposo?

Over the last three years Lucic has scored 62 goals and 158 points in 242 games.

Okposo has tallied 67 goals and 184 points in 210 games. 

Okposo turned 28 in April, while Lucic turns 28 in four days. Lucic is skilled, but also has a physical dimension to his game very few skilled players have. Okposo isn’t as tough, but he’s a better skater and has been more productive.

I can see arguments for both, but right now the Oilers have more depth on the left side than the right, and Okposo at $5.5 million (he made $4.5 million last year with a $2.8 million cap hit) might make more sense.

Thoughts?