[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by CanadaMatt

I wonder what we can read into Johnny (and probably other players) getting involved to make this deal happen? Is it an indictment on Neal as a dressing room guy that key players were helping get him out of the club?

I don't know about indictment, but this article in the Athletic by Duhatschek suggests Neal never found a fit with the team:

Quote:
If you ever wandered into the Calgary Flames’ dressing room last season, looking for James Neal, you’d find him stashed away in the far corner, the very last locker stall in the room. It’s not exactly where you’d expect to go searching for a player who was originally signed to provide a leadership voice and a winning pedigree to Calgary, based on Neal consecutive Stanley Cup final trips over the past two seasons.

For whatever reason – chemistry, a poor fit with potential first-line mates Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan or simply the inability at the age of 31 to rebound from two long seasons and two short summers – Neal was never a fit in his now one-and-only season with the Flames. He was supposed to be a central piece in the emerging leadership group of the team.

Instead, he was a peripheral figure, literally and figuratively, on a team that won the Western Conference regular-season title, without any meaningful contributions from their expensive free-agent add

https://theathletic.com/1086265/2019...or-james-neal/