Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
That was exactly it.
You could trade Neal for another one-dimensional goal scorer that hasn't worked out yet.
Okposo, Eriksson, etc
Or you could trade him for Lucic who maybe was worse offensively actually but would fit a role in our bottom 6.
The issue with the trade from day 1 wasn't the players involved IMO, but the team they were making the deal with.
Neal always had the chance to produce more playing on the top Edmonton PP with Draisaitl and McDavid, guys like Kassian/Chiasson had proved that anybody can produce in that spot, and an in-shape James Neal is still better than those guys.
So the issue with the deal was less about what Calgary was giving up, or even getting in return, but the issue was always that it had the potential to make Edmonton stronger.
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Does he though? I guess time will tell this season, but again, I'd argue all they did was replace Chaisson's 20 goals with Neal's. Chaisson will probably score about as much as Lucic did last season. So how does that make their team stronger?