James Neal was a healthy scratch at 5.75M to end the season. When it came down to the most important game, the coaches thought it was best to keep Neal off the ice. And, given his play, they were almost certainly right.
If Lucic comes in at under 5.75M cap hit, even if he is a healthy scratch, it's no loss. They both suck.
However, Lucic is also considerably cheaper as is, forget about salary retention. In terms of actual cost he is owed 16M compared to Neal's 23M. So 7M in actual savings for the Flames (pre-retention).
And then a conditional pick.
I'll take it as a win. Neal could bounce back, but given how absolutely terrible he was last year, I'd rather just not risk it.
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