Copyright The Boston Globe
Former Bruins forward Milan Lucic is joining the Springfield Thunderbirds on a professional tryout, according to a team announcement on Tuesday morning. Lucic, 37, last played in the NHL for the Bruins in 2023. He had a professional tryout with the Blues earlier in 2025 but was injured in preseason and did not make the final roster before the start of the regular season. Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said in October that “we’re going [to] rehab him here and get him back health-wise to 100%, and likely reconnect on an in-season [professional tryout] to get him up and running and see where he’s at then.” The Thunderbirds are a Blues affiliate. Lucic, who the Bruins drafted in the second round of the 2006 NHL draft, helped Boston win the Stanley Cup in 2011. He also featured for the Kings, Oilers, and Flames before returning to the Bruins for a second stint in 2023. Advertisement Three weeks after being placed on long-term injured reserve that season, he was arrested in Boston on suspicion of assault and battery of his wife. Charges were eventually dropped after Lucic’s wife declined to testify against him. He went through the NHL’s player assistance program, with the Blues saying over the summer that Lucic had completed it and was therefore allowed to rejoin an NHL team. Lucic has totaled 1,177 career NHL regular-season games since making his debut in 2007. During that time he notched 586 points (233 goals and 353 assists) along with 1,301 penalty minutes. Hayden Bird can be reached at hayden.bird@globe.com.
