I dislike it.
1. This is a great trade for the Oilers. Win, lose, or draw there is very little chance this makes them worse or puts them in a worse situation.
2. I think Neal has a better chance of rebounding compared to Lucic. That includes in Calgary (where he only had one year).
3. The NMC and payment structure limits options in the future and may put us in a bind at the expansion draft. We were ready to laugh our behinds off that the Oil needed to waste a protection slot. Now it's them that will laugh.
4. This doesn't address many of Calgary issues. We did get tougher. But we didn't clear much cap, address a position of need, add additional defensive skill up front, or most of all we didn't get faster up front.
I think Neal's issue was a matter of slotting. We couldn't put him with Monahan or Tkachuk because that would cripple the speed on that line. So he ended up with Bennett and Jankowski on the third line from the get go. That isn't a strong combination.
Lucic slots better in the third line. But I would have preferred moving Lindholm to C to open up three strong lines. A C depth of Monahan, Lindholm, Backlund would have provided a lot of options and likely would have got Neal to produce.
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