Quote:
Originally Posted by Dajazz
The World: that Lucic contract is untradeable, worst in the league.
Treliving: Hold my beer
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I havent waded through all of it because theres a lot, theres a lot of panic and disappointment and I can understand that.
I also think Treliving needs one of those apps on his phone that prevent drunken dialing, but thats neither here nor there.
And nobody said that Lucic was untradeable, just that it would require a considerable sweetener.
That sweetener in this instance was the removal of Neal, which has value, the retention of salary, which has value, the pick, which has value and ostensibly the addition of Lucic...the value of which is questionable.
One of Treliving's off-season goals to shore up this team was to bolster the 4th line and add some character, grit and toughness.
He has presumably addressed that with Lucic, whether that pans out or not remains to be seen.
So value traded hands. Lucic vs Neal in the lineup on the ice? Toss up at best. But overall we're no worse off right now than we were with Neal.
I've been trying to see the silver lining because frankly, Treliving has built this into a team thats arguably as good as its ever been and there has to be a lot of credit for that in addition to providing real managerial stability which are both major benefits and assets to the team.
Neal was useless outside of the top 6 and not even remotely good enough to be in the Top 6. Will Lucic be different? Maybe. Maybe not. But hes unlikely to be worse.
The real kicker is the NMC, but thats a couple years down the road to worry about.
So the trade isnt as catastrophic as it appears at first glance and no need to call for Treliving's head.
Until the expansion draft its dufus for dufus with some wildcard elements to it. We're no worse off than we were with Neal and we're not all that much better off unless some of the intangibles become tangible or we experience a Lucic who benefits from a post-Oilers boost, which isnt inconceivable. Almost every player that leaves Edmonton becomes immediately better off.
Comparing Lucic against Neal's performance in the upcoming season is going to be irrelevant as well. Neal is going to steal Chiasson's place on McDavid's wing so one's stats will improve while the other's declines whereas Lucic will be on our 4th line where Neal would have been just as useful as he was last season....which was 'not at all.'
Either way, the sky has not fallen.
Just dont rush out and buy a Lucic jersey or anything insane like that.