Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Yes. The signing if Neal was a massive #### up, which brought us Lucic. That decision alone would get someone in my industry #### canned. Trading a crap contract for another immovable contract would get you blackballed.
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Neal was the problem in that situation.
By production, Lucic was a net positive last year relative to Neal; he put up nearly the same offense while being vastly better defensively and filling a role that we needed, and still need.
Lucic is overpaid by $2.5M. Neal is overpaid by probably $4M, and doesn’t fill a role.
I get not liking the contract - I don’t either. But Milan Lucic the player is doing his job more nights than not, his teammates seem to like him, and he has championship experience.
Compared to James Neal, who was getting Dougie Hamilton money for Freddie Hamilton production.