To a tee, this is what I had anticipated. Lucic has looked better as a Flame than Neal ever did.
And as expected, Neal is having way more success playing with McDavid and Draisaitl than Jankowski and Bennett. Obviously didn't expect 6 goals in his first 3 games though.
He's just one of weirdest players you'll ever see. Completely useless everywhere else on the ice and can't do anything himself. But the second that he has some time and space, he can bury the puck in the back of the net. Looking at all the goals he has scored up to date, he's basically been wide open on all of them where he has a chance to unleash his shot.
But when he's expected to be the driver of a line, he's completely useless as you just stick a man on him and he's neutralized. Not fast or strong enough to get around defensemen, but when you have McDavid and Draisaitl getting all the double teams, it's been easy for him to hide, get open in a dangerous area of the ice.
Won't lie though, helping out the Oilers does not leave a good taste in the mouth regardless if we receive a 3rd out of it. I would've traded him anywhere else for anything else before helping out the Oilers. if Tre still wanted Milan Lucic, hey that's fine, just make sure you get 50% retention and a couple 1st rounders out of it.
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