Losing a middle six 29 y.o. player with 1 year until UFA status is a pretty good result for any team in expansion. It would have been insane for Poile to protect Neal. In hindsight, it would have also been insane to make a further deal to protect him (because that worked out so well for Florida, etc.). I don't remember if you were allowed to re-acquire the player you lost around the deadline or not, but those assets would be better spent on a deadline acquisition.
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