Confirmed Signing with Link: [CGY] James Neal (5 years, $5.75M AAV)

[nabob]

One hot streak by Elliott (Which wasn't even that hot) doesn't exclude the fact that Elliott was terrible for most of the season.

Not his fault he faced more odd man rushes than any other goalie in the league.

 

[Haatley]

Neal is being paid based off his performance from years ago.

He has excellent chemistry with Draisaitl who is every bit as good as Johnny. Rieder is a player just needing the right situation to breakout.

PKing is a skill. If it wasn’t then there wouldn’t be players who get paid well to specialize at it.

Neal scored 25 goals last year. He got paid for that.
Rieder is trash.
Draisaitil is nowhere near Johnny.
So much wrong here.

 

[nabob]

One hot streak by Elliott (Which wasn't even that hot) doesn't exclude the fact that Elliott was terrible for most of the season.

a 12-0-1 record with two shutouts, a 1.67 goals against average and a .942 save percentage. Yeah you’re right that’s just average.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Not his fault he faced more odd man rushes than any other goalie in the league.

Where can you find a stat he faced more odd man rushes? From what I last remembered on Corsica, Elliott faced one of the lower amounts of rush shots per 60 in the league in 2016-2017.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

a 12-0-1 record with two shutouts, a 1.67 goals against average and a .942 save percentage. Yeah you’re right that’s just average.

And yet despite this his Sv% and GAA for the season was below average.

 

[nabob]

Neal scored 25 goals last year. He got paid for that.
Rieder is trash.
Draisaitil is nowhere near Johnny.
So much wrong here.

Drai has more points over the last two seasons than Johnny. He also tore up the playoffs while Johnny was being benched. Not saying he’s better but they’re definitely in the same category of very high level players.

 

[nabob]

And yet despite this his Sv% and GAA for the season was below average.

All I said was he also had an amazing stretch of hockey and you denied it. Then I proved you wrong. No need for the straw man.

 

[nabob]

Where can you find a stat he faced more odd man rushes? From what I last remembered on Corsica, Elliott faced one of the lower amounts of rush shots per 60 in the league in 2016-2017.

Rush shots are not the same as odd man rush shots.

Anyways you’ve sidetracked this so far off my original point that I think the Flames would have been better off signing two top 9 type players that fill more roster holes because whoever plays with Johnny and Monny will put up good numbers. Hell Ferland scored over 20 last year. Why pay a ton for Neal and hope he scores 25?

 

[Haatley]

Drai has more points over the last two seasons than Johnny. He also tore up the playoffs while Johnny was being benched. Not saying he’s better but they’re definitely in the same category of very high level players.

Drai is and has always been a product of Mcdavid. Johnny bested him by 14 points last season. I guess you needed an argument to work in your favour so you included the year before. Cool. Career PPG Johnny is lightyears ahead. He carries his own line. Its not close. Sorry.

 

[crackdown44]

Worth it to give the old guard (smith, gio, backlund) a real chance at a deep playoff run. In 4/5 years the flames might be retooling, hopefully the prospects like Dube, Philips, Mangiapane, Valimaki, Andersson are top 6/ top 4 players but as of right now flames management can’t bet on that.

My thoughts exactly. They certainly aren’t favorites but this gives them a chance to be competitive in the Gio/Smith/Backlund era.

As we saw with a Washington and Vegas this year, the on paper favourites aren’t always the ones who make it to the dance

 

[FlamerForLife]

It'd be nice if for once a Flames thread on the mainboards doesn't turn into a pissing match with us and oilers fans.

 

[RazorRamon]

I don't think Gibson is the Ducks best player, but he is definitely one of the more important ones, whereas Smith isn't for the Flames no matter how people like to spin it.

Every team's goalie is their most important player. If Smith has a terrible season, the Flames are screwed.

 

[nabob]

Drai is and has always been a product of Mcdavid. Johnny bested him by 14 points last season. I guess you needed an argument to work in your favour so you included the year before. Cool. Career PPG Johnny is lightyears ahead. He carries his own line. Its not close. Sorry.

Wrong. Drai did his playoff damage centering his own line. He also centered his own line for a majority of last season. Johnny is also two years older and plays wing where he cheats for offense constantly. Maybe if he played a 200 foot game like Drai the Flames would have done something during his 4 seasons.

 

[Kybb79]

Oilers suck why are here?

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Rush shots are not the same as odd man rush shots.

Anyways you’ve sidetracked this so far off my original point that I think the Flames would have been better off signing two top 9 type players that fill more roster holes because whoever plays with Johnny and Monny will put up good numbers. Hell Ferland scored over 20 last year. Why pay a ton for Neal and hope he scores 25?

Well odd man rush shots count in total with rush shots, meaning even if Elliott did face the most odd man rush shots per 60 in the league last season. In total he would have faced like 5-15 extra in an entire season than the goalie that faced the least, which still doesn't excuse his overall play when you consider the fact the the Flames did a great job overall in limiting quality and quantity chances.

 

[Captain Controversy]

Good stuff or Calgary. Gonna be though to beat them this year with the upgrade on the forwards.

Side note of Johny and Leon

They are both stars. Both are good at hockey .

 

[Volica]

Calgary is by no means in cap trouble I agree, but we'll have to wait until Hanifin, Lindholm, and Tkachuk are extended to know where they truly sit. I think they'd be better off to just ride out the Brouwer and Frolik contracts and hope that they have internal replacements. Buyout just doesn't seem worth it next season. The problem with losing Smith, however, is that there is no current internal replacement for next season. You'd be doing some very wishful thinking if you think any of Rittich, Gillies, or Parsons will be ready to step in as the starter. They'll have to pay regardless if they want to bring in a different starter.

I do agree though, not being able to add a big contract next year is not a bad thing if the team has a competitive season.

For sure.
I've been vocal on the Flames board saying we don't an internal replacement for Smith. Rittich and Gillies haven't be up to par. And Ty Parsons is just far too raw.

We all know what contracts tend to make it to UFA mostly. Outside of JT, who was an anomaly, it's the same level of player you're paying Neal. It always looks better a year before UFA at this time.

On a high note, we didn't trade our first this time. Not saying that I wouldn't have done it again, but I would have liked to use that first at the draft on someone like ROR versus Hammer at the start of the year. The Flames and Oil both had a statistically improbable season (both teams having guys going PPG, top lines clicking) and both failed. I see both having a comeback year.

 

[Rubi]

I like the fact that Treliving pulled the trigger on a top line FA.
AAV is good. Term is 1 year too long but you can expect that on a in demand FA.

I like the looks of a Johnny Gaudreau (24g/60a) - Sean Monahan (31g/33a) - James Neal line (25g/19a) line

That coupled with a second line of Tkachuk (24g/25a) - Backlund (14g/31a) - Lindholm (16g/28a)
and a third line of Bennet (11g/15a) - Jankowski (17g/8a) - Derek Ryan (15g/23a)
makes for 3 decent lines...

 

[DFF]

Thinking it might have been smarter to sign a player like Rieder to a shorter term contract than throw big money at a 25 goal guy. Most teams go with duo’s and then add a third guy who compliments the duo. Like what Ferland was.

Neal scores 25 but he needs tons of offensive minutes and PP time. I’d bet Rieder come close to the same point total if he gets top 6 minutes in Edmonton while adding the element of being an excellent PKer as well.

Lol I wouldn't brag about pinning my hope on rieder

He failed on both teams and there is a reason nobody gave him more than 1 year

 

[CanadienShark]

Really not bad. Year or two too long, but that cap hit would go up if it were shorter.

 

[CaptainCrunch67]

Thinking it might have been smarter to sign a player like Rieder to a shorter term contract than throw big money at a 25 goal guy. Most teams go with duo’s and then add a third guy who compliments the duo. Like what Ferland was.

Neal scores 25 but he needs tons of offensive minutes and PP time. I’d bet Rieder come close to the same point total if he gets top 6 minutes in Edmonton while adding the element of being an excellent PKer as well.

Rieder is not in the same universe as Neal at all. The Flames signed a top 6 scoring winger, Rieder is a bottom 6 guy. Neal is a guy who out of his 25 goals and 44 points scored 5 pp goals and 9 pp points, so no he doesn't a ton of pp time, and the reason why Rieder would get top 6 time is not because he has top 6 potential, but because the Oilers have a stunning lack of top 6 wingers.

 

[Johnnybegood13]

Can we expect Mike Smith to play lights out hockey for the first 60 games? Can we expect career years from a bunch of forwards? The Flames issues were masked for the first half by incredible goaltending.

I think the Monahan injury's were just as significant, the last 35 games he could barely hold his stick and had 2 goals, plus he was also playing with 2 hernia's. Gulutzan was an idiot trying to play him with those injury's. any team that looses there top center would be in trouble but even Stajan would have been good for more than 2 goals with Gaudreau.

 

[Joey Moss]

I really like the signing for Calgary which sucks as an Oiler fan. Five years is not horrible at all at that cap hit for what he brings. Seems like most of the UFA signings this year have not been significant overpays like in years prior.

 

[ijuka]

Yikes!

I guess I should see the JVR deal in a more positive light due to this...

 

[BigGulpsEh]

Who is getting upset? If you and others want to say the term and whatnot is bad just remember you don't get paid to make these decisions and likely have less knowledge than those that do.

You act as if GM’s have never dealt out terrible contracts before.