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Originally Posted by mrdonkey
Did I not just say exactly what you wrote here, apart from the fit?
They are both bad players and Neal would likely have been riding the pine just the same as Lucic will on a lot of nights. And Neal is probably going on to score a bunch of goals just from McDavid bouncing things off his ass. So right there it’s a bad deal. The Flames lost. And I get that it’s one that had to be made if Edwards told Treliving he was done paying for UFA mistakes not to play here.
I just don’t get all the rationalizing and “toughness” talk that now shows up in these discussions like it somehow might make the team better. It is not 2011 anymore and Lucic’s brand of toughness is no longer the norm. He is a $5 million pugilist and nothing more. There’s no need to try and “make sense” of anything.
The Flames has a disgruntled player and a cheap owner. So Treliving was backed into a corner. But he backed himself into that corner and should rightly be held to account for making a really bad series of moves.
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I’m not so much on the toughness bandwagon as others, but I think Lucic brings a lot more to his game than being a face puncher. I’ve watched a few BoA games that I’ve saved on my PVR in the last few days and isolated only Lucic’s shifts and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with his overall game.
I thought for sure Tre had just acquired a pugilist as well. But from what I saw, he wins the majority of the puck battles he engages in which this team could definitely use especially along the boards and in the corners. He could also be a big addition on the PP2 unit as he’s almost immovable in front of the net. His ability to deflect the puck will probably be second only to Tkachuk. He’s actually not even as slow as I remembered. He can hold his own on the give and go and has surprisingly good vision.
The more shifts I’ve watched Lucic play, the more excited I am seeing him in Flames’ red. He might have struggled to produce playing with guys like Brodziak and other plugs which shouldn’t even be unexpected, but I could see linemates like Derek Ryan, Bennett or Jankowski improving his production year over year.