It’s become evident that just about every member of the Bruins organization — or at least those on the ice, the bench and those making hockey decisions — will be asked to weigh in on Tyler Seguin.
The Bruins, of course, dealt Seguin to Dallas on July 4 in a fairly shocking blockbuster, as Boston parted ways with the 2010 No. 2 overall draft pick after just a few years. Shortly thereafter, rumors of Seguin’s off-ice issues surfaced, and the Bruins’ brass admitted Seguin needed to mature not only as a player but a person. The B’s cut their losses, and now everyone else is left to share their stories about the now former Bruins forward.
The latest to do so is Milan Lucic. The bruising forward was on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher and Rich on Thursday morning, and the trade came up quickly. Lucic, who is fairly close with Seguin off the ice, offered his opinion as to how and why things went down the way they did.
“I think his off-ice issues was more him being guilty by association,” Lucic explained. “From what I’ve seen — I’ve been out with him a couple of times, but that was mostly outside of Boston — he was never a guy who was belligerent. In Boston, he was more guilty by association with the people he surrounded himself by. He’s obviously, he still needs a little bit of growing up and stuff like that.
“It’s another guy I had a pretty good relationship with, but at the end of the day, I think this is a move that management and everyone thought was best for the team. You’ve gotta support what they’ve done, and I think we got a good return in Loui Eriksson, and I’m excited to see what he can bring to our team next  year.”
There were also plenty of rumors that Seguin was running around during the team’s first-round series with the Maple Leafs, with three games coming in Seguin’s hometown of Toronto. Lucic couldn’t speak to any of those rumors, but he certainly knows what it’s like to play a playoff series in his hometown. Lucic went home to play the Vancouver Canucks in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.
“I must have been blind, with all of the rumors coming out because I’ve never seen any of that type of stuff,” Lucic said of the Toronto rumors. “I know he was feeling a lot of pressure playing the Leafs. I went through the same thing playing the Canucks. I know how the temptation around your family and friends can be when it’s in the playoffs. I never saw him do anything extracurricular, so that’s all I have to say about that.”
Lucic, though, has his own matters to worry about. His annual charity softball game was pushed back to Sept. 5, and that’s because Lucic will attend the Team Canada evaluation camp.
Hear him talk about that and everything else in the audio below.
