Fans always turn on bit players in my experience ... lots of anger to the 6/7 defenseman or fourth line forwards. They like backup goalies though.
But I wonder team history who is the most useless player / $ in team history.
Neal may just take it.
Brouwer was bad. Raymond? Bollig? Lucic now I guess given the value.
Some of the ones that looked bad didn't turn out bad at all like Engellend.
I think it's Neal.
Glad they found a way out of it, took on a fan favourite and then got to watch the guy sewer and stick a rival with a buyout penalty.
Kotalik would be up there on my list.
James Neal is definitely the slowest player I’ve ever seen on the Flames. I honestly couldn’t believe it when I saw him in his first game. I openly asked “who is that guy”? Then I saw the name bar.
Turek renegotiated for a smaller salary, but it also tacked on an extra year, so it wasn’t completely unselfish. He ended up leaving before the contract was even up though, which was the real favour.
Wasn’t Turek also an awesome human? I mean maybe not relevant to the specific metric of dollars per performance but still
James Neal is definitely the slowest player I’ve ever seen on the Flames. I honestly couldn’t believe it when I saw him in his first game. I openly asked “who is that guy”? Then I saw the name bar.
The Flames have had a lot of bad players over the years, but I don't think it's even close. James Neal was easily the worst player I've ever seen in a Flames uniform.
Neal literally couldn't play anywhere in any situation.
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Fans always turn on bit players in my experience ... lots of anger to the 6/7 defenseman or fourth line forwards. They like backup goalies though.
But I wonder team history who is the most useless player / $ in team history.
Neal may just take it.
Brouwer was bad. Raymond? Bollig? Lucic now I guess given the value.
Some of the ones that looked bad didn't turn out bad at all like Engellend.
I think it's Neal.
Glad they found a way out of it, took on a fan favourite and then got to watch the guy sewer and stick a rival with a buyout penalty.
Oh it's Neal. But for me I don't hate on players, even well paid ones, because they don't play well. So long as the effort and attitude are good, I can't hate a guy because it just doesn't happen or his skills hit the wall. Example - I never hated Brouwer - he seemed like a decent guy and he tried. But it was the end of his road. Now Neal is just a dick, Bourque was lazy, Marchment was dirty.
What i don't understand is that Neal wasn't a contract that went bad as he aged. It was bad from day 1.
Was he that bad the prior season and no one noticed? What exactly happened between when they signed him and when the season started?
IIRC wasn't he injured for a chunk of the regular season prior, then came back and was just so-so on a hot GK team during cup run, but the story was that he was just not at game pace following injury? Then the story morphed into how he had had a few extra long seasons in a row with playoffs, then that he just needed better linemates, then ...
Neal says Calgary was the death of him, blames not playing on Johnny's line and not himself as the culprit.
“Calgary was kind of the death of me when I went there. I was on the fourth line just trucking away. It’s been a battle since then.
“I went there to play on his line, that’s what I was signing, that’s what I thought I was gonna do,” Neal added
What a loser. Did he get bought out in Edmonton because he didn’t get to play with Mcdavid? Wonder who he blames that on.
I’d like to see his TOI with linemates early season in Calgary. Seems like he got chances and was so bad, coach was forced to bury him.
Yeah, it's dumb. Obviously the plan was to play him on the top line when the contract was offered to him. You don't hand out that kind of dough to someone you want on the 4th line. He just wasn't giving enough reason to put him anywhere else.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Neal says Calgary was the death of him, blames not playing on Johnny's line and not himself as the culprit.
“Calgary was kind of the death of me when I went there. I was on the fourth line just trucking away. It’s been a battle since then.
“I went there to play on his line, that’s what I was signing, that’s what I thought I was gonna do,” Neal added
It was no fun for us fans either watching him look terrible in a Flames jersey.
True. I really don't think those kinds of comments are going to impress a coach either. It makes him sound mentally fragile and not at all like team player.
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"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
I remember listening to the actual quote — I’m no James Neal apologist but I don’t think it is exactly in context to say he was blaming his poor play on not being on Johnny’s line. It is likely true that when he signed the intention was that he would be on the top line, until of course his game suddenly went into the toilet.
