I only skimmed a few pages in this thread, but it seems like I am the only one that likes this deal.
Why?
Lucic was trash in Edmonton. He is going to likely be trash on the Flames as well. However, if you want to look at both players turning around, maybe they will both be better fits for their new teams now.
Ok, ok... realistically now... what did each player do on their respective teams?
Neal didn't do squat here. Nada. He didn't forecheck well. Backcheck? Non-existent. What about his sniper shot? People like to point to his low shooting percentage and claim that it is bound to turn around and that it was all bad luck. I didn't see anything remotely resembling a good shot at all. I thought he was slow and detracted from the team speed. I also saw him being a negative on every line he was on. He did, however, provide some leadership to some of the young players. What really bugged me about Neal was what happened in the playoffs - he was terrible, and when Peters decided to limit his ice-time, he complained about it as if Peters was wrong to do it. Finally he became a healthy scratch. Honestly, I think that benching Neal and making him the 13th forward was going to be inevitable, and it was the best way to help this team win. He doesn't do anything well, and once again, he seems to drag down whatever linemates he has on with him.
What about Lucic? I expect him to post similar numbers to what he did last season - which was basically what Neal was posting. That's not great - at all. Don't get me wrong, I am not looking for Lucic to come in and suddenly become the Lucic of Boston, and worthy of his contract. That contract is still going to be a hindrance to this team - a total anchor that absolutely sucks. With that being said, at least he will actually fill a bit of a need - toughness. Not just his fighting ability, but his hits, his sticking up for teammates, and also him jamming the net and making life miserable for the opposing goaltender. I really don't see a drop-off from Neal's play here - they BOTH suck at playing hockey, and fairly equally, especially given Neal's undeserved PP time and his undeserved skates on the top line.
The way I see it, you are still going to get the same Neal from last season on this team, minus his probable distraction of "Why aren't you playing me more coach??", adding some sorely lacking muscle on the team, and at a slightly cheaper contract.
I wouldn't be surprised if Lucic out-scores Neal (again). If he does, it will be negligible anyway. This is a wash to me from an on-ice performance perspective when it comes to generating offence or helping out defensively. It is a huge win simply by finding an actual use for that detrimental cap hit. Neal was absolutely and completely useless. Correction - Neal was hurting this team by how every linemate seemingly did worse with him.
Hopefully Treliving finally learned a big lesson here - stop giving out big money deals with term on players that are above 30, especially if they are showing signs of regressing.
The ONLY issue I have with this trade is if it is going to affect the expansion draft. I am hopeful an agreement has been reached in which Lucic has already agreed to lift it for the draft and that the Flames don't need to use a protection slot on him. That's the danger of this trade to me, and I am eagerly awaiting some confirmation that it is indeed lifted ahead of time.
I think this trade will bother those that think Neal was poised for a bounce-back. I didn't see it, as I didn't view conditioning as an issue with this game as much as a general lack of skills. When you can't make a pass, and you can't really shoot, and you have about ZERO IQ defensively, then 'working hard' in the off-season isn't going to turn you into some good player.
With this trade, I assume that there will be no dilemmas for Peters as to where he fits into the lineup. He replaces Hathaway. That's it. Sucks that it is a huge cap hit, but at least he will be useful. Extremely overpaid, but at least useful, if not at times actually necessary.
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