Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
I disagree with this take. Easily his worst move as GM was trading a 1st and 2 2nds for Hamonic. It weakened their asset base when they were in a spot to contend in 2019 and Hamonic turned Brodie into a whipping boy and made Hanifin expendable to many this offseason.
In hindsight the Neal signing was a poor one no doubt and easily his worst free agent signing. That is a challenge of being GM of an undesirable market. I was of a sound belief the team needed another top 6 scorer that offseason. Lindholm was an upgrade on the outgoing Ferland but that 2018 Flames team really needed a top 6 forward. With the Hamonic trade bleeding the organization of trade assets Treliving went out to the market and got the highest rated UFA left. I remember Neal rumored to be looking for 6x6 so I was happy we got one less year and under 6 without any trade restrictions.
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The difference is that Hamonic made sense on paper and just turned out to be a lesser player than thought, which was unfortunate.
Neal made sense on paper BUT the issues he had and which became a problem were known - not in stats, but if someone did any digging into off-ice reports. That lack of due diligence is a problem.