Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
Why does Lucic have "less chance of bouncing back" than Neal? He is younger than Neal and going to a better team.
|
I think this is solely based on Neal having one bad year and Lucic having had two.
On the eye test, though I'd never have admitted it last year, Lucic looked to be more engaged. I think he is actually faster than Neal. And a few of Neal's points were pretty lucky (off his butt). I didn't watch Lucic enough to say the same.
Here's something else to give optimism. Lucic played just under 20% with Kassian and Brodziak. Yet he scored just one point of his 20 with them. In particular he only had the one point with Brodziak centring him. He had better success with RNH (naturally). Any one of Backlund, Ryan, Bennett or Jankowski is better than Brodziak.
In other words, Lucic on a third line with better linemates might be way more productive. All of Backlund, Jankowski and Ryan play games much more similar to RNH than Brodziak.
Treliving is pretty good at identifying trade targets that are "about to pop". Lindholm, Hanifin, even Hamilton when he got him. I also think he tends to identify players that aren't fitting in with the team - Hamilton, Sven, etc.