[News] James Neal on waivers

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

As a person that despised the trade I now have to admit that Lucic is the more serviceable player at this time in their careers.

I seem to recall you talking up Neal as a top-six forward last year who was willing the clearly superior Oilers into the playoffs. Good times.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[browna]

The telltale sign of what the Oilers really think of Neal, comes out thinly filtered through the politbureau press and hacks up there.

Coaches,GMs and players, all while they were on their way out, have their names dragged through the mud a week or two in advance, by that crew, at direction of the Oilers.

The odd time, such as the odd 5 day coronation of Keith Gretzky as the greatest assistant GM in history, the Oilers message to the masses is a positive one.

Based on this, https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/h...mpression=true it doesn't appear they are kicking him out of town yet.

If Neal sulks behind the scenes and the Oilers organization want the fans to sharpen this pitchforks and dip some 2x4s in lighter fluid regrading his tenure in the team, it will be incited fairly obviously by the next round of stories in the local press.

[CroFlames]

Ha, stupid Oilers.

They are now paying both Lucic and Neal to not play for them.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Ha, stupid Oilers.

They are now paying both Lucic and Neal to not play for them.

and Pouliot and Sekera

[csnarpy]

Originally Posted by Cole436

As impossible as it seemed, the Edmonton Oilers managed to lose the Milan Lucic trade

IMO, as soon as they put a Neil’s name on their roster they lost the trade.

But you know, Neil is the gift that keeps on giving!

[Kswiss]

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha. That is all.

[Calgary4LIfe]

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.

[Yrebmi]

James Neal played just (and just barely) good enough, scored enough, to get us a 3rd.
Now he is making it easy to troll Oilers fans.

I might actually be starting to like the guy in a Jim Benning sort of way.
Maybe he can start some drama in the locker room or something.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Hopefully Mike Smith throws a tantrum and hurts his back in doing so.

[browna]

If you strip away some of the Oilers and Flames drama, really is an interesting case of a player and his mentality, fitness, motivation and abilities and the yo yo ride he has been on.

Vegas picked him, a perennial 20 goal scorer, and others up in the expansion draft with the thought to flip those guys at the deadline to gain picks in the draft, but then the team and Neal was exceeding expectations and they made a playoff run, but got no return for Neal and others.

Comes to the Flames as an x factor, but one I was excited about, to bolster the woeful secondary scoring where outside of JG and SM, as the team was and is thin at pure goal scoring and nothing really indicated he was anything but a pure goal scorer and a big body. But he did very little, clearly, here.

Obviously the long term contract and an overall the comfy contract here made him unmotivated. In Vegas he was a UFA and was motivated to show that the Pens made a mistake when they gave him up.

And look, he flips the switch on again like he did in Vegas, to prove the Flames made a mistake, in the first 2 months of last season and racked up goals. Goals are not easy to score in the league and he was potting them at will early on. And just like that, he seemingly proved his point to himself and whoever else, and the flip was then switched off in his head for the rest of last season and now this.

It is somewhat fascinating that the player still has the pure ability to score goals but so instantly and dramtically refuses to work at his game/fitness/whatever as he gets older, to make the most of that talent.

[Tabaracci_31]

Can we claim him and then simply not dress him? Just for kicks?

[Plett25]

Originally Posted by Tabaracci_31

Can we claim him and then simply not dress him? Just for kicks?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Did we end up getting that conditional draft pick in the trade?
I can't remember

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by Winsor_Pilates

Did we end up getting that conditional draft pick in the trade?
I can't remember

We did. Third round this year.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

We did. Third round this year.

The original deal was for a third rounder in the 2020 draft, but with the prorating required, it was determined that the slight devaluing of the conditional pick should change the puck to the Oilers choice between 2020 and 2021. The Oilers picked 2021.

[the2bears]

Originally Posted by flambers

From an article on Oilers nation


"Edmonton more roster flexibility, as Neal will freely be able to go up and down from the Oilers to the Taxi Squad once he clears.

Having Neal on the Taxi Squad as a buried contract will also save the Oilers $1,075,000 against his cap hit"

Right or wrong, think about what you've done. You've quoted Oilers Nation to make your point.

[Johnhitbox]

I was kinda having a blah day.. its funny how the little things can change that.

Sent from my SM-N986W using Tapatalk

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by browna

The telltale sign of what the Oilers really think of Neal, comes out thinly filtered through the politbureau press and hacks up there.

Coaches,GMs and players, all while they were on their way out, have their names dragged through the mud a week or two in advance, by that crew, at direction of the Oilers.

The odd time, such as the odd 5 day coronation of Keith Gretzky as the greatest assistant GM in history, the Oilers message to the masses is a positive one.

Based on this, https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/h...mpression=true it doesn't appear they are kicking him out of town yet.

If Neal sulks behind the scenes and the Oilers organization want the fans to sharpen this pitchforks and dip some 2x4s in lighter fluid regrading his tenure in the team, it will be incited fairly obviously by the next round of stories in the local press.

Deluded base, claiming the first picture in the article was in the playoffs...........uh that was the play ins fellas! never made the playoffs

[tvp2003]

Originally Posted by Yrebmi

James Neal played just (and just barely) good enough, scored enough, to get us a 3rd.
Now he is making it easy to troll Oilers fans.

I might actually be starting to like the guy in a Jim Benning sort of way.
Maybe he can start some drama in the locker room or something.

He didn’t even score the required 21 goals and he still cost them that pick. In a season that they got knocked out by the tanking Blackhawks in the play-in.

Good riddance Neal. The whole province probably hates him now.

[Barnet Flame]

I remember watching and joining in with the laughter as Edmonton had a player with the worst contract in hockey. It was hilarious - the gift that kept on giving.

Then I laughed at an Oilers fan for even suggesting we were about to do a deal to take that contract off their hands.

That we did go on to do that and still won the trade has me laughing like a German that has just heard the funniest joke of all time.