Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
The Oilers are done hoping that Lucic was going to find his game. The fact he was brought in on a massive 7 year deal and basically sold as being the Hall replacement made it an impossible hill to climb. They were able to take a chance on a guy that had one horrible season but is a scoring winger who had a decade of success prior to.
The Flames decided quickly in their mind that Neal was not going to rebound next year and it was probably made clear by Peters and his staff that they believe Neal is done in the NHL. Neal can easily become the next Heatley and fall straight off a cliff for the next 1-2 years until the Oil can stomach a buyout.
Calgary is likely sick of buying out the FA mistakes and saving $500k on the cap and getting a player better suited to their bottom 6 was appealing enough to take on a contract that contains a NMC and is not one that can be bought out to save cap $.
My personal hope is Lucic is able to be a 10 goal 30pt player while bringing the toughness he is known for. Personally I have no interest in the 3rd round pick and would enjoy Neal continuing his downward trend in the next couple of years.
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Lucic's buy out is actually pretty close to Neal's in a year's time.
Something like $180K per year on a six year buy out difference. Neal is flat at $1.9M, Lucic is rough for a year, better for a year, rough for a year, and then a non factor for three years.