Stay East Young Man

The Bruins announced yesterday that they had re-signed forward/tough guy Milan Lucic to a three-year, $12.25 million contract extension. This comes on the heels of trading another youngster, Phil Kessel, to division rivals Toronto. From the outside one would question the trading of the much more offensively gifted Kessel (66 goals in 222 games) and signing resident tough guy Lucic (70 points in 151 games) to such a hefty deal. It is not that simple, however. The Bruins feel they have a solid core group and look to keep them around for some time. This is made abundantly clear by Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli,

"You’ll see that the players we want to sign, we will sign."

There you have it. He believes in Lucic, and why wouldn't he? He's an exciting young player who gets the crowd on their feet, whether it be pummeling another man's face or putting the puck in the net. He would have been a restricted free-agent at the end of the year, and the B's weren't about to let that happen.