After a day of digesting this, I like this even more. When rumours first began circulating of this deal, I was all for it.
Can any single person make the argument that Neal was a net positive at all on this team? I can certainly make the point that he was consistently a net negative in how he dragged every line down. To cap it off, he ends up arguing with Peters about his lack of ice time? FFS, he kept getting the most undeserved opportunities over and over and over again on this team. After every penalty kill, he gets thrown out with Monahan and Gaudreau - every single damn game. He continually got WAY too much PP time. He was disinterested in playing defence on top of that, and outside of a handful of games, didn't even bring any physicality. He was an absolute negative on this team. Now to see that he and Peters might be butting heads if he didn't get the same opportunities as he got last season? Good riddance. I never say that about players leaving the organization - you can look up and down my posting history here if you are that interested. I really mean good riddance. He wouldn't accept the fact that he simply became a very poor player by every metric, but really felt he was a better player than others on the team and deserved 1st line minutes and PP time? Really?
Pens didn't want Neal even though he really produced there. Nashville found him expendable and not worth protecting. Vegas utilized him on the third line and didn't seem like they were all that interested in re-signing him. In Calgary, he was absolutely the worst forward on the ice game in, game out. I sure as hell bet that a Bennett - Jankowski - Dube line (simply swapping out what I consider to be the worst forward for the next call-up) being a vastly more effective line. Any arguments there? I have never in my life seen a former 40 goal scorer have so much trouble shooting the damn puck. It wasn't only that he couldn't get to dangerous areas, but once he did, the puck took forever coming off his stick and most of the time it was neither hard nor accurate. That's why I argue that his SH% - his career worst - seems appropriate for him. Does it take a year to get used to a new stick? Maybe he had screwed up wrists or other hand-related injuries - that's the only way I could ever see him 'bouncing back' with his terrible shot.
As for Lucic - welcome to Calgary. Lucic actually gives a damn about playing defence. Think about this - Lucic did not get those prime minutes that Neal got. He started more often in the defensive zone, whereas Peters HAD to utilize Neal in offensive zone starts. He hit 3x more than Neal. To top it off, he out-produced Neal?
Hey, don't get me wrong, that contract sucks for what he brings, but this is an absolute win for Calgary. I bet that Lucic even skates faster than Neal. Flames were the biggest pushovers last season and didn't have an answer for any team that really showed toughness, especially when the PP was misfiring at times throughout the season. Now the Flames can send a response, and Lucic loves to hit and get into players' faces. It would not surprise me to see an uptick in his production as well - maybe he was a bad fit in Edmonton. Heck, I wouldn't even mind seeing him on PP2 as the net-front presence. Flames are sorely lacking that, and Neal was AWFUL at it.
I am almost positive that after the first two months of the season, there will be nobody who really hates Lucic. I doubt that there will be anyone that loves that contract, but there will be nobody that thinks that Lucic is hurting this team in any other way. I was surprised at how composed he was while in Edmonton and didn't do much that was stupid. You are always going to have a poor penalty differential when you are a physical guy out there playing his role, so I am not concerned about that - it comes with the job. He just won't do stupid stuff any longer (if his time in Edmonton is enough of a sample size) to hurt the team.
I have NEVER been a fan of Lucic, not even in his heyday in Boston. I am not some Lucic fan boy who loves the fact that the team I cheer for acquired one of my favorite players - I actually quite hated Lucic, even though I really love many of the tougher guys around the league, and even loved some of the pure enforcers of the past.
Lucic just isn't as bad as Neal at the game of hockey - at both ends of the rink and especially along the boards. He can also add value in being a more disruptive player against opposing teams, especially in front of the net.
Would I rather the Flames have neither Neal nor Lucic? Of course. With that being said, the Flames improved their cap situation, helped fill a few glaring holes on the team (toughness, net-front presence, board play), and most of all acquired a good TEAMMATE that can accept the role he is given and won't become a distraction. It's an absolute win.
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