Quote:
Originally Posted by crapshoot
His incredible demise is pretty strange though, isn't it? I mean, he's not even that old. Sure, he's 30, but it's not like there is usually a cliff that steep to fall off at 30. If he were 35 it might make sense, but how does a guy fall that far that fast at that age? Also he has been put in plenty situations to succeed without any positive results at all. Of course he's slow and all, but speed never had any part in his success, so how on earth does an NHL player just lose his entire skillset like that?
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The Oilers signed him at the worst possible time.
You could see three things were happening in the NHL.
1) More young players were entering on entry level contracts to give teams more balance under the salary cap
2) This youth and the recent tend towards young skill meant the game was speeding up dramatically season to season.
3) Concussion fears and political correctness were pretty much pushing fighting out of hockey.
As a result Lucic lost his entire game in 24 months.
The Oilers went out and bought a betamax instead of a VCR.