I was hoping for the Neal - Lucic trade when the rumours first surfaced. Not because I thought Lucic was particularly good, but because I saw Neal being THAT terrible.
Even though I wanted that trade to go through, Lucic has been a nice surprise with his offence off the 3rd line. I saw that his underlying metrics were actually better than most in Edmonton at the time, so I figured he would be decent defensively. Plus, he is a physical player that hits often, and of course is a huge deterrent that has come in handy a few times thus far. For instance, I thought Zadorov was a huge problem to play against, but that one incident with Lucic and I barely noticed him in the rest of the games that season.
Neal is just terrible, and he must be one of (if not THE) slowest players in the NHL. His GAF metre is absolutely broken. For me, watching him play that season in Calgary brought me flashbacks of Shantz, or even LeClerc. I thought that Brian McGrattan helped the Flames more and hurt them less than Neal. He would at least hit regularly, TRY to play defence (Neal didn't even try!), and gave the Flames a lift now and then.
In my mind, Neal will always be the worst player that I have ever seen go come through Calgary. I thought he was the absolute worst contract in the NHL, and I welcomed that Lucic-Neal trade with open arms.
Go #### yourself Neal.
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