Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
No I wouldn't. I would have done everything humanly possible to move Neal and taken nothing back. If Neal was that large a concern I would have shopped Neal and offered to retain 25% and given up our third round pick to make it happen. The smart play would have been to play him up the line up, let him have his hot start, garner a little bit of interest, then dump him at the first opportunity. Do NOT take back an even worse contract back just to get rid of Neal.
It was a horrible trade. Lucic's deal is worse because it is buyout proof.
We're stuck with dead cap space. Treliving's incompetence at signing free agents has cost us the cash that could secure another top line player. We have $8M in dead space because of Lucic, Brouwer, and Stone, and Stone was a double #### up as he had to go out and sign him again after buying him out. Just brutal management. You can forgive a swing at a pitch in the dirt every now and then, but when the GM does it consistently it is a problem. This team will not be competitive so long as that much money is locked into players that don't contribute. Imagine what 10% of the cap could do to improve this team?
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Cringe.
The ‘I’m smarter than they are’ take without actually knowing the full story. Dubious claim.
Neal was not coming back. He had to go. Playing him up the line up in the hope he could increase his value so that you could find a taker, is a little naive. After all this is a guy who is on his fourth team in four years, and seventh of his career. For a guy who has had 12 20 goal seasons, that should raise an eyebrow. I doubt he would have come back to camp smiling and happy to do whatever was best to help the team win.