Ongoing thread for Neal/Lucic discussion

[dino7c]

Don't love the deal but the Flames are no worse off...

[CanadaMatt]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

The team could still take from their defensive depth and add a top 6 winger.

I don’t think eating nearly $3M in dead cap and sending a pick is the right move either.

The only down side is the team decided to not see if a rejuvenated Neal could bounce back. I think this trade would have always been there for them so I don’t see the need to rush things until Neal proved definitively he was a bust. Something is up where both sides desperately wanted a breakup ASAP.

I get you view, don’t agree, but I do understand it.

I think there is a great deal of dirty laundry still to be hung out to dry on this deal...It’s very odd

[CanadaMatt]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Don't love the deal but the Flames are no worse off...

Given your comments on Neal over the past season, I can only conclude that someone has hacked your account

[D as in David]

Same pro-scouting group that recommended Lindholm and Hanifin?

[Robo]

Didn't know lucic is good friends with Iggy and talked to iginla about be traded to the flames. Iginla told him to jump at the opportunity to play for us

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I think they had a 5M+ fourth liner regardless as you said.

I support Treliving, but it's hard to fathom how the pro scouting staff could have missed the mark on both Brouwer and Neal.

Now clearly there are some caveats on all these things. Neal has been productive, so I guess without insider knowledge on not working hard in the summer it would be hard to predict the cliff he fell off. Secondly attitude would be hard to measure because he's never had a lack of success pushing him down the roster.

With that said ... the Brouwer contract hurt, doubling down on an older player again seemed crazy. I know most liked the Neal signing the day it happened, but almost all of us worried about 5 years.

Well Calgary was Neal's 5th team in a 10 year nhl career.and his rep was out there ...

I don't relish being a negative Nancy so I did not participate in the Neal signing thread but it seemed to me at the time to be a dreadful mix of both parties' desperation. Neal wasn't getting offers with term and Calgary was coming off finishing 27th in the league in goals.

For me it's not hard to see at all how they missed it. No one wants to play in Calgary so when you can find a guy who is willing to play there, for whatever reason, you sign him and hope to win now.

Brouwer was already building a house in Calgary and Neal was looking for his last NHL deal, wherever he could find it

Who negotiates a 5 year deal at 30 years old as a ufa without trade restrictions? A guy who is just looking for a contract and doesn't care which team it's with. He's looking to hit a water mark, not a destination, and he can figure out where he plays after that: maybe by sulking his way off the team if things aren't going well for him immediately.

Anyway, this is all symptomatic of 20 years of draft failure and no one wants to hear that angmore so I'm not going to say anything about how the flames haven't drafted in the 2nd round in 3 straight years and that the longest Sutter ever went was 4 years and it completely crippled the chances of the core group under iginla to win.....

This is just desperation at work. All of it reeks.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Robo

Didn't know lucic is good friends with Iggy and talked to iginla about be traded to the flames. Iginla told him to jump at the opportunity to play for us

I always forget that they played together for a year

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It's why I hate these interdivisional trades. The Baertschi trade worked out well for the Flames because Andersson is a better player already but that's about the only deal between the Flames and Canucks or Oilers where the Flames actually came out ahead. The other ones weren't disasters but I would say trades like today, taking Smid's contract off their hands, Granlund for AHL player, etc all helped the Flames rivals more than it did the Flames.

I thought Flames won the Ronnie Stern for Dana Murzyn deal.

[Stud_McCool]

Not sure how much Lucic will help this team, but to me, two of the biggest and entitled whiners last year, in Smith and Neal, are gone - to the same team, no less. That's already a win in itself.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

I thought Flames won the Ronnie Stern for Dana Murzyn deal.

Plus we got Kevan Guy!

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

lol. Milan Lucic is not an NHL calibre player. Literally the only reasons he's still in the league are his contract and the fact that the Oilers don't even have 12 NHL calibre forwards.

It's mind boggling if we think Lucic is going to add anything of value here.

Same could be said of Neal frankly. At least Lucic might throw a hit. Neal did absolutely nothing last year, nothing. Neal sucked in every facet of the game and dragged every line he was on down. We couldn’t bring Neal back, his lack of foot speed, lack of toughness, lack of scoring had no spot in our lineup.

[Barnet Flame]

I never thought that were we to get rid of Neal it would be possible to end up worse off.

Yet, here we are.

[Cambardi]

Over the years of watching Neal I can honestly say I wasn't impressed by his play. I've always felt that he punched above his weight class. There was bound to be regression in his game. His skating is labored, and not relevant to today's NHL game.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by devo22

Lucic can't skate. No matter how bad Neal was, a battle-scarred 30+ winger with bad skating isn't the answer in today's NHL.

If you need me, I'll be crying in the corner.

Unmmm Neal can’t skate either. Didn’t you see him last year?

[Icon]

So...

Gaudreau - Monahan - Lindholm
Tkachuk - Backlund - Frolik (or replacement)
Lucic - Ryan - Bennett
Dube - Jankowski - Mangiapane
Czarnik

Not a huge change really from 1st in the west lineup last year. Not looking any worse anyway.

Coming around to feeling the end result of this trade is "meh" for the Flames, but probably more of a perceived win for the Oilers fans, which then makes it feel worse for Flames fans, heh.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I think part of the problem is that we keep looking at this from the perspective of “winning” the trade by getting the best player. It reminds me a bit of the Hamilton to Canes deal.

The amount of success the player who was shipped out has with his new team is largely irrelevant.

I honestly don’t care if Neal scores 40 playing with McDavid, on the condition that the Flames finish higher in the standings and make it further in the playoffs than the Oilers.

I also don’t care about buyout or expansion implications. If the Flames wanted to buyout Neal they would have and they obviously didn’t want to do that. I also am banking on Lucic not screwing the Flames and BT being smart enough to negotiate with Lucic that he’ll waive.

All that matters to me is that Lucic helps the Flames more than Neal would have. Obviously with all the excuses being thrown out to explain Neal’s awful performance last year, there’s a lot of guessing involved in whether he would’ve been better with the Flames next year. But even if he was, and that’s a massive if, I don’t want a player to be forced to play here if he doesn’t want to be here.

So all my focus is on Lucic. If he is terrible in Calgary, then we lose this trade, regardless of how well Neal performs. I don’t want to make Edmonton better but what do I give a #### if they’re better as long as we’re better too? The addition of James Neal to that embarrassing tire fire does not make them a contender.

I think Lucic will make the Flames better, by how much remains to be seen. Good riddance to James Neal. He’ll join a long list of UFA signing failures by the Flames in recent years.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

Unmmm Neal can’t skate either. Didn’t you see him last year?

Lucic is actually better than Neal skating wise. He is about on par with Tkachuk speed wise. Neal is more on pace with a tortoise on skates

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Lucic is actually better than Neal skating wise. He is about on par with Tkachuk speed wise. Neal is more on pace with a tortoise on skates

I scoffed when you wrote this before, but then ClassicSniper posted some highlight videos, and Lucic showed more hustle and speed than I saw at any point last year from Neal.

[Heavy Jack]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Lucic is actually better than Neal skating wise. He is about on par with Tkachuk speed wise. Neal is more on pace with a tortoise on skates

I hated watching Neal glide/float around waiting for the puck to come to him only to inevitably be caught dead in the water when the puck turned back up the ice. Probably my most hated high profile UFA we’ve ever signed especially because of how pumped I was to initially have gotten him.

[Monahammer]

The more I think about this the more I can get behind it. Looking forward to seeing lucic in red. Really looking forward to him smashing some people for us and