Winger Milan Lucic was inked to a three-year contract extension this afternoon. The announcement came on Twitter when NHLBruins said the following:

NHLBruins Lucic signs three-year contract extension thru 2012-13... details to follow on BB.com ^BB

The deal is reportedly worth just over $12 million. That breaks down to $4 million for the first two years and $4.25 million for the third year.

Lucic was drafted in the second round in the 2006 draft. He was the Bruins' 7th Player Award winner in his rookie year. He set career highs scoring 17 goals and 25 assists last season.

"Looch" had a Gordie Howe hat trick in his rookie season.

Defenseman Andy Wozniewski to a one-year contract earlier today. Wozniewski, 29, was in the St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins organizations last season playing for their AHL teams. He had 3 goals and 18 assists in the AHL last season. He played one game in the NHL with the Blues.

The Bruins probably wanted to add a little more depth behind the big six (Zdeno Chara, Dennis Wideman, Andrew Ference, Derek Morris, Matt Hunwick and Mark Stuart) in Boston. Johnny Boychuck should be on the cusp of being the seventh defenseman in Boston (read: healthy scratch, plays when needed). However, there is risk recalling and re-assigning Boychuk to/from Providence. Boychuk could be plucked off waivers. Wozniewski gives Providence a little more depth on their defense.

It looks like Wozniewski was skating with the Chicago Blackhawks in their informal workouts.

One standout was Buffalo Grove native Andy Wozniewski. I had not seen him up close before today, and that's one big defenseman. At 6 feet, 5 inches and 220 pounds, he can't hide. Wozniewski is a journeymen who was traded in March from St. Louis to Pittsburgh for former Hawk (coincidentally, also a Buffalo Grove native) Danny Richmond. He reminds you that guys that can play the game at a high level at that size don't grow on trees. It's probably a reason he's still hanging around after not being drafted.

Depth is always a good thing to have. A team can never have enough of it because injuries always happen.

(Did you think I meant the Bruins signed Phil Kessel? Sorry.)

The Boston Bruins have signed defenseman Derek Morris. The news was broken by James Murphy (writer for Inside Hockey) on Twitter around 4 this afternoon. Morris played for the New York Rangers last season. His salary was $3.95 million.

The contract is reportedly a one-year deal worth $3.3 million according to TSN. Earlier when rumors were going around that he signed with the Bruins, I was hoping the cap number would be somewhere below $3 million. But compared to last year's salary, Morris still took a pay cut.

I was familiar with Morris during his days in Phoenix because of another former Bruins defenseman. Morris was traded from the Coyotes to the Rangers at this past season's trade deadline. The Bruins were reportedly trying to acquire him at the time.

They finally got their man.

The Aaron Ward trade earlier in the day looks to have made room for Morris, but where does that leave Phil Kessel? In a post by Joe Haggerty, Ward hinted that there is some action going on behind the scenes, which may lead to even more trades.

“I think you have to explore certain options and you go down the line of certain guys that you can trade. I ended up being the guy that was tradable. I know a little bit more background that’s going on,” said Ward. “I’m not at liberty to discuss the facts or what’s going on behind the scenes, but there’s economics involved up there."

Bruins fans knew it would be a task to fit David Krejci and Kessel, both restricted free agents, under the cap. I don't think they ever thought there would be this much movement on July 25th.

(The time of this post reflects the time I initially started writing it. I left it unpublished until more details were known later tonight.)

The Boston Bruins avoided their salary arbitration hearing with defenseman Matt Hunwick by inking him to a two-year deal yesterday afternoon. Hunwick was a restricted free agent and elected to go to arbitration which was scheduled for Friday.

Hunwick's two year deal is worth $2.9 million. He will earn $1.35 million next season and $1.55 million in 2010-2011.

Hunwick made his first appearance on the Bruins in 2007-2008 playing 13 games and spent the rest of the season in Providence. He tallied 27 points in 53 games this past season. He missed all but one game in the playoffs due to emergency surgery for a ruptured spleen.

Besides playing defense, Hunwick spent a few games up front playing forward.

"My impression is that they liked everything they saw and they are not putting any limitations on him," said Mark Witkin, one of Hunwick's agents. "They are probably feeling there isn't anything he can't do. He's at the time and state in his career where he's going to keep getting better."

Hunwick is valuable to the Bruins when he is in the line-up. The Bruins were 38-8-7 with Hunwick in the lineup last season. They went 13-10-3 when Hunwick was not in the line-up.

I heard about the signing on Twitter while I was on my way to work yesterday, which is the reason for the delay in posting the news.

The Boston Bruins released their preseason schedule earlier today. The TD Garden (official name change coming next Thursday) will host two games. The first preseason game at the TD Garden will be on September 19th and the second game on September 26th. The game on September 19th against the New York Rangers will be at 4. The September 26th against the Columbus Blue Jackets will be at 7.

The complete preseason schedule is as follows:

September 15 @ NYR 7:00 p.m. (Madison Square Garden, New York, NY)
September 16 @ TOR 7:00 p.m. (Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON)
September 19 vs. NYR 4:00 p.m. (TD Garden)
September 20 vs. MTL 7:00 p.m. (Quebec City, QC)
September 22 @ CBJ 7:00 p.m. (Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH)
September 24 @ MTL 7:30 p.m. (Bell Centre, Montreal, QC)
September 25 @ OTT (7:00 p.m. (Scotiabank Place, Ottawa, ON)
September 26 vs. CBJ 7:00 p.m. (TD Garden)

In addition to releasing the preseason schedule, the opening dates for training camp were released. Rookie camp will open September 5th and remain in Kitchener, Ontario until September 10th. The main training camp will open on September 12th.

There was a media advisory released by the NHL announcing there will be "major announcement concerning a special event" at Fenway Park on Wednesday. The 2009-2010 schedule will be released on Wednesday and the press conference at Fenway Park looks to be the official announcement of the Winter Classic at Fenway on January 1st. The Bruins are rumored to host the Philadelphia Flyers. The announcement is at 2 p.m. and will be on NHL Network and streamed live on NHL.com.

Development camp is in Wilmington this week and runs until Sunday. Invitee Rob Kwiet signed an entry-level contract yesterday. Kwiet, a defenseman, had 12 goals and 55 assists for 67 points in 66 games last season with the Windsor Spitfires. When I attended development camp yesterday, he was somebody who forced me to keep looking at the roster to see who #59 was and it was always Kwiet. Needless to say, he grabbed my attention for the right reasons.