The Elite Ice Hockey League, the top level of hockey in the U.K., doesn't get a lot of big names. NHLers who have washed out of North America tend to head to the Continent: Sweden, Finland, Russia et al., all offer more money, better facilities, and a bigger spotlight for a pro to, perhaps, play their way back to the NHL. So it's a rare day when an EIHL team signs a 17-year NHL veteran. But the last-place Fife Flyers are desperate, and Milan Lucic even more so.
Lucic, after stints in Boston, Los Angeles, Edmonton, and Calgary, hasn't played in the NHL since November 2023, when he was arrested and charged with assault and battery of his then-wife, who told police he had pulled her hair and choked her. Lucic was placed on indefinite leave by the Bruins, and remained on it for the rest of the season, even though charges were dropped in February 2024 after Lucic's wife refused to testify. (She filed for divorce two months later.)
Lucic signed a tryout contract with the St. Louis Blues this summer, but was injured in preseason and released, before signing another tryout contract with the Blues' AHL affiliate. He was again released in November.
This past Wednesday, the Flyers, based in Fife, Scotland, announced the signing of Lucic with as much pomp as a 3-16-1 club can muster. It was poor timing for an EIHL team to jump in bed with an accused domestic abuser: Just the day before, the Sheffield Steelers had cut former Sabres draft pick Clifford Pu after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman on two occasions.
The reaction from Fife fans to Lucic's signing was swift and negative. The team's social media channels were swamped with criticism. On Thursday, one of the team's sponsors announced it was ending its deal with the Flyers. "[W]e will have no further association with the club," Skyhook Helicopters wrote in a statement. "This decision has not been taken lightly and reflects our commitment to professionalism, integrity, and our wider responsibilities as a business."
Former COO Gareth Chalmers had announced his resignation from Fife last week, before the Lucic signing was finalized. On Twitter, Chalmers wrote that he could not support the decision, made by the team's North American ownership:
Following recent developments relating to the team, there have been multiple occasions where I felt strongly compelled to advise against a certain plan. Despite my concerns, the club has chosen to proceed, and while differences of opinion are very much part of any sporting environment, these plans placed me at odds with the clubs direction.
Experience has taught me that I cannot sacrifice personal and professional integrity for decisions I am opposed to.
The team's media coordinator, Craig Anderson, followed suit in quitting this week, writing, "when something puts you at odds with your own moral compass, you need to question that and the motivation behind that. … [W]ith a young daughter to consider, she needs to know I'm doing right by her."
Lucic is scheduled to make his debut at home on Saturday.
It's impossible not to think about the post-trial career of the Hockey Canada players, who this summer were found not guilty of sexual assaulting a woman in 2018. All of them have found hockey jobs since. Carter Hart is the most prominent of the five, having signed to wide opprobrium with the Vegas Golden Knights one day after he was eligible, and suiting up as soon as his NHL suspension ended. Dillon Dubé is with the Blues' AHL team. Alex Formenton plays in Switzerland; Michael McLeod in Russia.
It's Cal Foote's situation that especially echoes Lucic's: When Foote joined Carolina's AHL affiliate, the GM made sure everyone knew this was a decision mandated by the parent club. "One-hundred percent not a Chicago Wolves signing,” Wendell Young said. “We understand the magnitude of this signing and everything surrounding it. The signing is out of our control[.]"
The question of whether players like Lucic or Hart, not convicted of any crime, deserve to play professional hockey isn't a uncomplicated one. But "deserve" is exactly the wrong way to think about it. A hockey job, especially a prominent one like in the NHL, isn't owed to anyone. Signing a player also doesn't just happen; it's the result of an active choice, and it is always an option to simply not make that choice. As the former Fife officials and sponsor illustrate, it's also a choice whether to go along with it or not.
