The problem with the Neal signing is it was only going to work if he played on the top line. He wouldn’t fit with Backlund in a shutdown role and Janko/Bennett were not good enough to carry him either.
I was a huge fan of the signing because I though we needed another top 6 forward and Lindholm was going to replace Frolik on the second line chipping in with 15-20 goals and 40-50pts. The great news is Lindholm is much more than that and is a legit top line player capable of near ppg production. Neal came in like a guy that just got paid and was not fully engaged. He sulked when he wasn’t given a huge rope on the top line and basically punched his ticket out of town.
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