I believe Treliving deserves some heat over the Neal signing which is different to say he should be fired for it. It failed spectacularly and I’m not convinced it was based on some sound, meticulously crafted strategy. Neal was a one dimensional player and before the signing, seems pretty clear the only fit was going to be on the top line. Peters had other ideas. Neal of course shows up with zero game and effort which is all in him, but there is nothing in his history suggesting he was a “do anything for the team” kind of guy. So once the first line thing didn’t work out, he became the square peg in the round hole.
To suggest that Treliving should not have been able to foresee any downsides to this signing is being unnecessarily forgiving. Neal’s age, demeanor, history of not sticking with one club were all known.
Neal’s play is on him, pure and simple. But the GM puts together the team and he took a risk with Neal that didn’t work out. That’s on him. He’s still the GM so you hope like any good organization they have done a thorough post mortem of what went wrong instead of avoiding responsibility. That was the biggest free agent signing in his tenure and should have been thoroughly vetted and researched.
As for this trade, it’s not that big of a deal IMO. It could work out a little bit in the Flames favor, which I consider the more likely scenario. But if for some reason the Oilers get the player Tre thought he signed 12 months ago, then a 3rd round pick will seem rather insufficient.
|