Ongoing thread for Neal/Lucic discussion

[GioforPM]

Lucic was centred by RNH a little under 15% of the time. He had Brodziak 23%. And when he got Brodziak he got Kassian or Currie on the opposite wing. Lucic played mostly with terrible players.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Getting rid of a disgruntled, useless anchor, and taking on a gruntled anchor that adds the physicality that this oft called "butter soft" team so desperately needs? I'm a-ok with this.

As someone said earlier, I think the biggest pill to swallow is that we all made fun of this contract for so long, now we look like fools. But that's just pride getting in the way of what is a move that makes total sense for both sides.

We just traded our blue (pouty) anchor for a red (firey) anchor. Matches better.

Lucic was a bad player with a bad contract on a bad team the relentless mocking was justified if you ask me.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

RNH is the Oilers' third best forward. There is no argument that he is on the same tier as Draisaitl or McDavid, and in fact there's a lot of reason to think he's a product of those two. I'm not convinced RNH is any better than Backlund or Bennett if you wanna talk about guys getting gifted top six minutes on a bad team he's a far better example of inflated stats. None of his underlyings whether it's passing stats or primary points or possession have been anything to write home about.

Neither McLellan nor Hitchcock "play for corsi".

The bar for Lucic is being better than the players he's replacing, yes. Which would be Neal on special teams and Hathaway at ES. And there's no reason not to think the Flames have improved in those areas. Is he overpaid? Yes, but we were never going to magically poof Neal's contract away. Playing with Mangiapane, Ryan, or Bennett there is no reason to think Lucic can't throw up 10-15 goals and ~15 assists from our bottom six. He will be playing with better players and against softer competition.

The fact that we've freed up half a million in cap space shouldn't be overlooked either. We will need all the wiggle room to retain Bennett/Rittich/Tkachuk.

Lucic will not get 15 goals. He will not get 15 assists. He didn’t get that on second line minutes. What makes you think he will with third line minutes?

[codynw]

So I just got back from vacation and saw the news, I'm not reading through 80+ pages.. does Lucic have to be protected in the expansion draft? Or do I get to continue living?

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by codynw

So I just got back from vacation and saw the news, I'm not reading through 80+ pages.. does Lucic have to be protected in the expansion draft? Or do I get to continue living?

Sort of, but probably not.

There's no real answer to this yet. He still has his NMC but everyone including Treliving seems to think it won't be an issue

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Lucic will not get 15 goals. He will not get 15 assists. He didn’t get that on second line minutes. What makes you think he will with third line minutes?

He will be consistentlg playing with better forwards, on lines that are made for the modern NHL, with better defensemen, with softer deployment.

[midniteowl]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Ryan Kesler is the worst contract -- at least Seabrook is still a reasonably useful NHL player. Kesler had 8 points in 60 games last season and is at $6.8M for another three years;

Whoa...aren't we glad that Tre didn't trade Neal for Kesler? At least Lucic was part of the group that prevented the Canucks from soiling the Stanley Cup. Just that alone, I'm forever grateful.

[woob]

Franchise crippling. Oh that made me laugh. I’m going to edit the Wiki article for the Flames and add that gem in there for posterity.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by codynw

So I just got back from vacation and saw the news, I'm not reading through 80+ pages.. does Lucic have to be protected in the expansion draft? Or do I get to continue living?

Its not clear yet, but if the NMC is in place still and he doesn't waive it, then yes he would have to be protected, although because its 2 years away its nothing to worry about now.

At least i think thats how it is supposed to be perceived.

[mrdonkey]

After sleeping on it, I still hate this. Looking at the composition of this team on Capfriendly, it’s just... weird. There’s like a million LWs and basically no one on RW after Lindholm. I have no idea what Treliving is doing, and after Kadri fell through I’m not convinced he does either. It all reeks of desperation in much the same way as those directionless Sutter teams.

[CanadaMatt]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I don't know about indictment, but this article in the Athletic by Duhatschek suggests Neal never found a fit with the team:

Quote:
If you ever wandered into the Calgary Flames’ dressing room last season, looking for James Neal, you’d find him stashed away in the far corner, the very last locker stall in the room. It’s not exactly where you’d expect to go searching for a player who was originally signed to provide a leadership voice and a winning pedigree to Calgary, based on Neal consecutive Stanley Cup final trips over the past two seasons.

For whatever reason – chemistry, a poor fit with potential first-line mates Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan or simply the inability at the age of 31 to rebound from two long seasons and two short summers – Neal was never a fit in his now one-and-only season with the Flames. He was supposed to be a central piece in the emerging leadership group of the team.

Instead, he was a peripheral figure, literally and figuratively, on a team that won the Western Conference regular-season title, without any meaningful contributions from their expensive free-agent add

https://theathletic.com/1086265/2019...or-james-neal/

Bizarre.

How can this be when his Leadership was touted by those ‘in the know’ on this forum as a reason he was valuable to the team. Some went so far as to suggest his mere presence in the bench was a differentiator and made the team play better.

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear folks made up their own ‘facts’ to back up the conclusion they wanted to arrive at.

[Roof-Daddy]

I still don't understand how trading one bad contract for another "reeks of desperation".

Now we have an overpaid underperforming bottom six winger who will actually fill a role when he's not scoring, instead of one who just floats around while bringing nothing to the table ever.

[MissTeeks]

Well, I'm glad you get to tell us how right you were for the rest of the summer.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

After sleeping on it, I still hate this. Looking at the composition of this team on Capfriendly, it’s just... weird. There’s like a million LWs and basically no one on RW after Lindholm. I have no idea what Treliving is doing, and after Kadri fell through I’m not convinced he does either. It all reeks of desperation in much the same way as those directionless Sutter teams.

How can you say this?

Treliving just managed this team to 1st in the Western Conference and our second best regular season in franchise history.

Tree felt he needed to address toughness, and he had a problem on his hands in James Neal's presence. He addressed both and saved 500K. Yeah, I'm not saying I love Lucic's deal, but given the situation - I think it's a good move - especially after looking at Lucic's underlying numbers.

[Redrum]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Slower than Spooner, Rattie and Reider. One who just signed in Switzerland, and two who are without a contract.

I didn't realize if you can skate fast you are guaranteed an NHL spot. I thought their situation was due to not being very good players overall.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

After sleeping on it, I still hate this. Looking at the composition of this team on Capfriendly, it’s just... weird. There’s like a million LWs and basically no one on RW after Lindholm. I have no idea what Treliving is doing, and after Kadri fell through I’m not convinced he does either. It all reeks of desperation in much the same way as those directionless Sutter teams.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Tree felt he needed to address toughness,

Thinking back to Calgary vs Colorado I don't see how a guy like Lucic would have made the slightest difference, do you?

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by Redrum

I didn't realize if you can skate fast you are guaranteed an NHL spot. I thought their situation was due to not being very good players overall.

Does anyone have the dancing Rico Fata Spiderman gif?

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by zamler

Thinking back to Calgary vs Colorado I don't see how a guy like Lucic would have made the slightest difference, do you?

Hard to say, but at least the guy he moved out didn't make the slightest difference either

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

I still don't understand how trading one bad contract for another "reeks of desperation".

Now we have an overpaid underperforming bottom six winger who will actually fill a role when he's not scoring, instead of one who just floats around while bringing nothing to the table ever.

Don't know about desperation but Lucic has looked done for a while now and probably had the worst contract in the league. To move Neal for him after giving him just one year in the organization seems like a panic move. Not to mention it's not really a ringing endorsement for future ufas.