Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Every team had to leave guys unprotected that they would have preferred not too, that argument means little, particularly when you consider they went the 4-4-1 route and could only cover 4 Forwards.
I agree its unlikely, after this year, that Poile or many GM's want Neal on his current deal, but it has nothing to do with who was protected or not 2 summers ago.
Who would you have left out of this group over Neal?
Viktor Arvidsson (F)
Filip Forsberg (F)
Calle Jarnkrok (F)
Ryan Johansen (F)
Mattias Ekholm (D)
Ryan Ellis (D)
Roman Josi (D)
P.K. Subban (D)
Pekka Rinne (G)
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It means everything. Every good GM in the league found a way to protect a player they felt they couldn't part with by way of a trade or arrangement with Vegas beforehand. It's not like each team was hamstrung by only protecting 9 players. They absolutely COULD have done something to protect him and many teams did with their own players.
The fact Poile didn't make any attempts to save Neal makes it pretty obvious they were content to see him go either way. He's certainly not a bad GM, he just knew that Neal was not going to be part of the team beyond his current deal and valued others far more than him.