Lucic fired up for Bruins homecoming

BOSTON -- At 12:01 p.m. on July 1, one minute into the start of NHL free agency, a text message appeared in Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney's phone. It was a picture of Milan Lucic, wearing a black hat with the spoked-B of the Bruins.

It was a hat he bought in a store in Los Angeles two days ago, along with some T-shirts for his kids, in anticipation of this moment, when he could finalize a one-year, $1 million deal with $500,000 in performance-based incentives that would bring him back to the team he played with for his first eight NHL seasons.

It's a reunion that the forward has long been hoping for, ever since he was traded from the Bruins to the Los Angeles Kings on June 26, 2015.

"I'm not going to lie, for the last seven years, I've been thinking about what it would be like to put on the spoked-B, black and gold again," Lucic said. "That's why I'm so grateful for this opportunity."

After Calgary Flames general manager Craig Conroy gave Lucic permission to talk to other teams, Sweeney reached out to the former Bruin and they came to a handshake agreement. But Lucic had a problem. He was in Los Angeles and his stuff -- including all his old Bruins gear -- was in Vancouver.

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So a shopping trip was in order.

"That just says a lot about where his mind is at and coming back home," Sweeney said. "I think when he steps back on the ice, I think everybody in the building will feel a little bit of a buzz."

The signing of Lucic was part of a low-risk, low-cost strategy on the July 1 opening of free agency by the Bruins, who signed five players to NHL contracts: forwards Lucic, James van Riemsdyk (one year, $1 million), Morgan Geekie (two years, $4 million) and Patrick Brown (two years, $1.6) and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk (one year, $1 million). They also signed forward Jayson Megna to a one-year, two-way contract with an NHL cap hit of $775,000.

"With the congestion of the marketplace, as it relates to the cap and where we were, I think we did a lot of things that we set out to do in addressing the depth overall of our club," Sweeney said. "We've got plenty of opportunity for younger kids to come in and take their place if they earned it. But we've also complemented the group with players we felt we needed to fill some holes and address some needs."

By not committing long-term to any players, including their own free agents forward Tyler Bertuzzi and defenseman Dmitry Orlov , the Bruins will be in significantly better shape in the summer of 2024 when the salary cap is expected to rise.

For now, Boston has been working its way out of salary cap trouble, beginning with the trade of forward Taylor Hall and his $6 million contract to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. The Bruins are facing $4.5 million in bonus overages because of the 2022-23 contracts for forwards Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.

And they still don't know whether Bergeron or Krejci will return. Both are unrestricted free agents, and both have said that they will either re-sign with the Bruins or will retire. Sweeney said Saturday that the team is willing and able to give both all the time they need to decide.

"We still have to hear a final word both from David Krejci and Patrice, so we'll keep an ear out for that and cross our fingers and maybe that falls our way," Sweeney said.

It was alongside Krejci, as his wing, that Lucic helped the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 2011, where they beat the Lucic's hometown Vancouver Canucks in seven games.

And it's a little bit of that magic that Lucic would love to get back in his return to Boston.

"Obviously it's a place that's close and dear to my heart," said Lucic, who was taken No. 50 by the Bruins in the 2006 NHL Draft. "Having an opportunity to come back - you can see the smile on my face right now. It feels like I'm going home. I've always felt like I've always been a Bruin and I'm just so happy and thankful for the opportunity to be a Bruin again."

Sweeney admitted Saturday that trading Lucic, one of the first big decisions he made after he took over at the helm of Bruins management, was "one of the hardest [decisions] I've ever made as a general manager." He said he felt like he needed a flak jacket and helmet walking around Boston after the trade.

Which was why he was thrilled to sign Lucic on Saturday.

"Just feel like bringing 'Looch' back to Boston was the right thing to do. For all the reasons," Sweeney said. "He feels he's got a lot of juice left and we feel he can provide a real jolt of both enthusiasm, bite to our lineup. … It's a thing we missed. In a perfect world, he never would have left."

Lucic's role will be far different now than it was when he last played in Boston as a top-six forward. But the 35-year-old said he was at peace with that. He played in 77 games last season with the Flames, scoring 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists). In eight seasons and 566 games with the Bruins from 2007-15, he scored 342 points (139 goals, 203 assists), including a career high 62 points in 2011.

"I'm not the same player or person who I was 10 years ago," Lucic said. "I understand that I'm going to be playing in a different role, in a new role, but at the end of the day my mindset is still the same as what I'm trying to achieve and that's trying to win a championship."

He will be thrilled to show Boston to his three kids, two of whom were born in the city, to show them the place that meant so much to him, the place where he feels like he grew up.

"I was there as a 19-year-old," Lucic said. "Yeah, I know I was born and raised in Vancouver, but I feel like I was really raised, became an adult, in Boston, became a Bostonian.

"And as time went on, I missed being a Bruin more and more as years went on. It's really funny, I always caught myself watching Bruins hockey games, I caught myself cheering for the Red Sox, cheering for the Celtics, the Patriots. It was a place where I felt like I really grew up.

"I'm just so happy. I feel like I'm coming home."