Quote:
Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois
Would love to know the real story behind the Lucic trade. He’s likeable but terrible. The flames can’t possibly think he’s likely to be a useful player again, though I get why they’ll give it a shot now that they have him. And his contract is worse. How poisonous did Neal have to be for that to be a better option?
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I believe it had to do more with wanting to jettison Neal than it was to pick up Lucic. I have a really bad feeling that Neal became a disruptive force in the dressing room and was not the team player the Flames wanted him to be. When a team deals a player after one year of a long term deal, and do so for very diminished returns, it screams character issues. Neal appears to a guy more focused on himself and his production than he does about team success. I think that is why they dealt him, and why they were willing to bring on board an expensive face puncher as the only return.