Kings Trade Trio of Assets for Bruins’ Milan Lucic

If you simply looked up the top level particulars on Milan Lucic, you would assume he’s custom-built for the L.A. Kings organization. Standing 6-foot-4, the bruising left wing has spent his entire eight-year career playing in the rough and tumble town of Boston. With 342 points (139 goals, 203 assists) in 566 regular season games, and another 61 points in 96 playoff games, he’s a three-time 20-goal scorer and was a key member of the Bruins 2011 Stanley Cup team.

What would it take to get a guy like that, you might ask? Quite a bit actually.

In a trade that came together just hours before the 2015 NHL Draft was set to begin, GM Dean Lombardi swung for the fences, in a ‘win-now’ move. He sent the Kings No. 13 pick, goaltender Martin Jones, and top-5 rated prospect, defenseman Colin Miller, to Boston for Lucic, who is in the final year of his contract. To help out with the financial part of it, the Bruins are retaining $2.7M in salary.

In 2007, Milan Lucic recorded his first career goal, first assist, and first Gordie Howe hat trick at @STAPLESCenter vs @LAKings

— The Mayor John Hoven (@mayorNHL) June 26, 2015

In Jones, the Bruins are getting a goaltender Lombardi didn’t want to trade, but was finding it very difficult to sign, as the young netminder desperately wants to be a starter in the NHL.

The Kings are believed to have tried every conceivable option to use these same (and other similar) assets as sweeteners to move Mike Richards. As of this afternoon, nothing had presented itself.

Miller is the wild card in the trade. He is outstanding offensively, but the Kings management team felt that he was at least a year away from being NHL ready and there have been ongoing concerns about his defensive chops (see full scouting report here).

As we reported on twitter when the deal was going down, our sources inside the Kings management team say they are done making deals for today. However, we will join a conference call with Lombardi shortly, so there is still more content to come.

In the meantime, here is Rob Blake on Miller, from a recent interview he did with MayorsManor.

UPDATE: Comments from Lombardi added here.

Follow @mayorNHL

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please remember to include a link to www.MayorsManor.com