James Neal?

[Moosetache]

Would you want him? I'm on the fence here....he has always annoyed the crap out of me with his diving and antics....but he does score goals. If we traded out Skinner and replaced him with Neal, that would be a positive move in my opinion from a hockey perspective.

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[bleedgreen]

I’d love him, not sure we’re a fit for where he’s at in his career. That would be a leap of faith on his part that we will contend, though of course we could look a lot different on July 1st.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I’m from the Tom Dundon school of thought. In general, free agency is for dummies. The “winners” are the ones constantly stuck in cap he’ll because they had to overpay for their guy.

There’s guys like Williams or Hainsey in the mid-range that make sense because the term is lower, and there’s guys at the tip-top like Stamkos and Tavares that you’re ok paying that much because they’re truly franchise-changing players. Low-end guys that fill out the roster are great. But everyone else in the “TSN Top 25 Free Agent Tracker” are generally not worth it.

Considering the financial limitations of the team, I’m actually fine with the way they’ve handle free agency the past 5 years, and if they continue to do so judiciously I’m ok. I always think to the Wild signing Suter and Parise, and how that’s worked out.


Anyway, with that set-up, I imagine Neal will ask for too many years to make the term worth it on the back-end. I’d do 5x6. I’m guessing he’ll want more.

 

[Moosetache]

yeah, after looking deeper, I'm not giving a 30 year old guy who scores 40-50 points a year 5 years at 5-6 mil

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

Francis: GM Treliving under pressure now to bolster Flames roster

I can't see a front-office that looks poised to pass on a $7 mil x 7 contract for Skinner, assuming he would re-sign for Kane money, turn around and give Neal $6 mil x 6. Neal is a better player overall, imo, but that contract would take him from age 31-36. The Skinner contract, in comparison, would take him from age 27-33.

 

[Moosetache]

agreed with you there BDC.....I was thinking he was like 28 when I initially posted. I also wasn't thinking 6 years

 

[tarheelhockey]

I’d love him on a 1-year contract worth whatever.

For the term he’s going to demand, and the curve he’s going to follow before it’s over, he’ll probably be more of a problem than he’s worth.

 

[NotOpie]

James Neal has averaged 45 points over his last 4 seasons. That's not a $6 million contract, that's closer to $4 million (and that's because he's got a 60 and an 80 point season on his resume). He's also turning 31 in September.

I'd probably be okay w/a 4 year deal in the $16 million to $18 million range and hold my breath that he didn't degrade in years 3 and/or 4. But that's only if we ditch Skinner and don't get his goals back in another transaction.

If he gets more than that, then let somebody else do that dirty work.

 

[Canes]

I'd be fine with overpaying a guy like James Neal if we were already a playoff team the last couple years and we finally wanted to start adding missing pieces to take a run at the cup. That's pretty much the only time overpaying UFAs can be worth it.

But we're still a team coming out of a rebuild and we have a lot of up and coming young players to re-sign soon. So the smart move would be to avoid high priced UFAs for now.