Quote:
Originally Posted by Oil Stain
Yeah, but one of the biggest reasons for buying a player out is to get the reduced cap hit in the remaining years of that player's contract.
Calgary might not get a better window to win than the next three seasons for a long time. They have a top ten winger on a sweetheart contract and a Norris Trophy D-man.
Both of those things are unlikely to be around after the next 3 seasons.
If I was the GM in Calgary it would be a huge priority to clear out cap hits that aren't helping, but Treliving traded a poor contract for one that is even harder to move out.
I just don't get it.
|
I feel there's a few things at play when you look at this trade from the Flames side. First and foremost is cap space. Calgary gained 500K in cap space in the Lucic and Neal trade, and currently has less than 200K in cap space. They needed to make a trade to clear up some sort of cap space, and the Brodie and Frolik deals that were rumored during the summer proved to be too difficult to pull off for one reason or another.
The other thing at play is just how ineffective James Neal was as a Calgary Flame. This wasn't a "He's an OK player on a bad deal." type of season. James Neal simply had one of the most ineffective seasons I've ever seen from a Flames player. He was too slow to play in the top 6 and too disengaged to play in the bottom 6. He's a player with huge defensive deficiencies and when he was not scoring, he was completely useless.
He played the whole season like he left his heart in Vegas, and frankly the coaching staff should have benched him long before game 5 of the playoffs.
Quote:
|
Also I don't think Lucic is looking like any kind of contributor now, and hasn't for a couple of seasons.
|
I hate this trade, but it's a trade that the Flames basically had to make because signing James Neal to a contract was a huge mistake.
A message had to be sent that if you're not going to be engaged with this team, then you're not going to be here. Tre made a mistake giving a 30 year old Neal dollar value AND term, and they had to scramble a little bit to find something that's bad, but maybe a better fit.
Lucic doesn't have any points atm but i feel like that has more to do with the fact that Calgary's bottom 6 as whole is just struggling right now. Lucic himself has played OK and is doing some good things. He's affecting the game in a lot of little ways that are leading to chances for the Flames, but he's far from perfect. His puck skills definitely aren't great and I feel like the coaching staff is using him a little too much. I'm sure he's gonna take some frustrating penalties at some point, but i think as the guys around him find their legs, and if he can start taking the puck hard to the net more consistently, then he'll be able to settle into a depth role on a line with some players with more skill.
The thing to remember about this trade is that there's still 3 more seasons after this one for both of these players and that only Baseball cares about what happens in October.
Right now this deal looks great for the Oilers and terrible for the Flames, but we are 6 games into the season.
With what i saw from Neal last season, I'm really interested to see how he slots as the season wears on. Neal relies heavily on his linemates to make plays. When the games become tighter and as teams find their legs, when the PP goes into a dry spell and things need to be switched up, when the team goes on a losing streak where does Neal slot? He's likely a straight PP specialist at this point in his career and Calgary had difficulty finding minutes for him when he wasn't producing or engaged.
The Oilers success is going to be measured by if they make the playoffs. They're off to a strong start, and James Neal has been a big part of that and if they make the playoffs he will likely be a big part of it.
The Flames success is going to be measured by what they do in the playoffs. If they make some noise in the playoffs Milan Lucic will likely have something to do with it, and that will be more than they were ever going to get out of James Neal.