[Rumour] Wild & Pens are discussing Phil Kessel + Jack Johnson for Jason Zucker + Viktor Rask

[Husky]

Neal could be traded but flames have to retain half his salary

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Husky

Neal could be traded but flames have to retain half his salary

That in itself would not be enough to move him at this time. Maybe if he had a year left on his deal.

You’d have to take back a bad contract.

[Husky]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

That in itself would not be enough to move him at this time. Maybe if he had a year left on his deal.

You’d have to take back a bad contract.

Dont agree. If neal was a ufa he would be signed but at a lower price then current contract. So eating half his cap basically makes him an affordable ufa to another team.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Husky

Dont agree. If neal was a ufa he would be signed but at a lower price then current contract. So eating half his cap basically makes him an affordable ufa to another team.

No team in the NHL is signing Neal to a 4 year contract if he is UFA.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

No team in the NHL is signing Neal to a 4 year contract if he is UFA.

While I'd agree if betting, I don't think these absolutes can be stated so confidently.

Neal would be signed, probably three years x 3M if he was available this summer. He's been too productive in the past for everyone to have given up on him.

4 years is a stretch and his current salary is a no go ... but maybe you could get someone to bite if you ate half of it.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Bingo

While I'd agree if betting, I don't think these absolutes can be stated so confidently.

Neal would be signed, probably three years x 3M if he was available this summer. He's been too productive in the past for everyone to have given up on him.

4 years is a stretch and his current salary is a no go ... but maybe you could get someone to bite if you ate half of it.

I really don’t agree here Bingo. Some team might give Neal a chance, but a 3 year deal? At $3 million per? That would imply some kind of bidding war. He would get a one year, prove me contract IMO.

Forget about expectations, he was plain awful last year and simply no reason to give term to a player like that.

But if what you believe is true, Flames will have no problem dealing him simply by retaining salary. Which they would happily do.

[Flash Walken]

Neal was worse than Brouwer was the year before.

There's no way a team is going to offer him 9 million dollars after being bought out.

Neal's contract is even buyout prohibitive due to the length. It's 50% worse in term and cash than Brouwer's situation, for arguably a worse player.

Brouwer was 31 when the wheels fell off in Calgary.

Neal was 31 when the wheels fell off in Calgary.

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Neal was worse than Brouwer was the year before.

There's no way a team is going to offer him 9 million dollars after being bought out.

Neal's contract is even buyout prohibitive due to the length. It's 50% worse in term and cash than Brouwer's situation, for arguably a worse player.

Brouwer was 31 when the wheels fell off in Calgary.

Neal was 31 when the wheels fell off in Calgary.

Relative to expectations, yes. But this is some revisionist history. As bad as Neal was, his PPG last year was higher than Brouwer’s was in his last season here.

Brouwer was awful and probably one of the worst players to play on the Flames in the last decade. Neal was bad but he wasn’t Brouwer bad.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Relative to expectations, yes. But this is some revisionist history. As bad as Neal was, his PPG last year was higher than Brouwer’s was in his last season here.

Brouwer was awful and probably one of the worst players to play on the Flames in the last decade. Neal was bad but he wasn’t Brouwer bad.

Neal scored 19 points in 942 minutes of icetime.

Brouwer scored 22 points in 1058 of icetime.

Brouwer played 13:56 on one of the worst offensive teams in the league.

Neal played 14:57 on the second best offensive club in the league.

Neal averaged 2:12 on the powerplay, Brouwer averaged 1:14.

Brouwer played 2 minutes a game shorthanded. Neal played 1 minute shorthanded TOTAL over 63 games.

I know this is difficult to consider, but Neal is much worse than Brouwer was, and Brouwer was really bad.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Relative to expectations, yes. But this is some revisionist history. As bad as Neal was, his PPG last year was higher than Brouwer’s was in his last season here.

Brouwer was awful and probably one of the worst players to play on the Flames in the last decade. Neal was bad but he wasn’t Brouwer bad.

Healthy scratch in must win game.

The one thing Neal is unequivocally better at that than Brouwer: he is much more media savvy and gave a very fan friendly end of season interview compared to Brouwer. I’m not convinced that means much of anything.

[Steve Bozek]

I hope the Brouwer and Neal experiences will make Treliving show a little more caution re. offering fat and long term contracts to free agent forwards on the wrong side of age 30.

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Relative to expectations, yes. But this is some revisionist history. As bad as Neal was, his PPG last year was higher than Brouwer’s was in his last season here.

Brouwer was awful and probably one of the worst players to play on the Flames in the last decade. Neal was bad but he wasn’t Brouwer bad.

Brouwer in his first year of his contract almost got double the amount of goals that Neal got in his first year.

I'm just hoping Neal can put together a couple of 15-15 seasons before that contract gets really bad. That said, he has a lot of work to do just to get to what i want, let alone getting back to a top 6 player.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Husky

Dont agree. If neal was a ufa he would be signed but at a lower price then current contract. So eating half his cap basically makes him an affordable ufa to another team.

But for 1 year, not 4.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I really don’t agree here Bingo. Some team might give Neal a chance, but a 3 year deal? At $3 million per? That would imply some kind of bidding war. He would get a one year, prove me contract IMO.

Forget about expectations, he was plain awful last year and simply no reason to give term to a player like that.

But if what you believe is true, Flames will have no problem dealing him simply by retaining salary. Which they would happily do.

You could certainly be right.

I guess I just see a guy with 10 years of production and a down year vs a guy that was never really productive and was signed after a career year.

The career trajectories aren't the same.

[Mattman]

I agree with the posters who mentioned that we need more Sam Bennett's and not less. Dude finally bought into the team system and actually found his role under a good coach.

If we trade Sam Bennett then I only see a situation where we go full circle and realize there is no one tough on this team who can assist in big scoring plays. Which leads us to replace him with Chris Stewart's and James Neal's, where we end up sorry for buying into players past their prime.

That said I would jump all over a Zucker/Rask/Kessel deal.

Give me the ol' Cincinnati Triple!

To Pittsburgh
CGY 1st + Rask (C) + Zucker (LW/RW)

To Minnesota
Jankowski (C) + Frolik (LW/RW) + Johnson (D)

To Calgary
Kessel (RW) + McCann (LW/C)

Getting Jared McCann from Pittsburgh would be solid, and a kick in the balls to Vancouver whenever we have to play them. Skilled, physical 3rd liner, played up with Crosby too, and (correct me if I'm wrong) played on Florida's PK unit too. Playing really well on Team Canada right now.

Also, I know this is kind of a shotty deal for Minnesota so maybe they get something else more from Calgary or Pittsburgh.

Johnny - Mony - Kessel
Tkachuk - Backlund - Lindholm
McCann - Bennett - Czarnik
Mangiapane - Ryan - Neal

Spicy!