Confirmed with Link: Flames Trade Neal for Lucic (12.5% retained) and conditional 3rd round pick

[Johnny Hoxville]

The one thing I like most about Looch is that he's a product of Boston. He came up playing with Bergeron, he knows how important 2-way play and possession is. I think he will be a good influence on our younger players.

 

[Anglesmith]

Still hate it. Neal is the more talented player at this point. Have to believe Tre and Peters wanted him gone and wanted him gone badly. Either there should have been a non-conditional pick or the retention should of been in the 20 to 30% range.

I'm just not sure what talent he is supposed to have. He honestly wasn't an NHL player last year. It appears that any success he's had in the past must have been a by-product of his linemates (thus making him an interchangeable part), because he isn't able to create anything by himself. He can't skate past anyone, he can't outmuscle anyone, he can't deceive anyone with his hands, and he is unable to shoot the puck past a goalie from range. Sure, he'll put the puck in the net if set up to do so, but so will literally any NHL player.

I actually went through his goals from last year. He scored one goal on a proper wrist shot during the entire season, and that goal (his first of the year) was into a yawning cage. Outside of that, he scored on one intentional deflection, two pucks bouncing off his body, stuffing a puck through the goalie from the top of the crease, a completely whiffed wrister that knuckled over the goalie's shoulder, and that one memorable golf shot into the top corner on a rolling puck. We signed him as a sniper, and through the entire season he scored maybe a single goal that one would associate with a sniper.

Having watched him play on both sides of the puck, and reviewing that body of work in terms of production, it really makes out a profile of a player who can be effectively replaced by an AHLer without hurting the team. I think that was true here (and we did in Game 5), and I think it will be true in Edmonton. He may score with McDavid, but I would suggest that he will do no more for them than any of the other scrubs they've attempted to have leach off McDavid. I will be the most shocked person in the world if Neal isn't in their bottom 6 by December.

 

[SKRusty]

Still hate it. Neal is the more talented player at this point.

My only quibble here is Neal is the more talented goal scorer. In regards to a 200 ft game, ability to set others up, physicality and defensively Lucic is more talented. There really is no comparison in all the other areas. Without Neal scoring Calgary put up the second most goals... It is likely players like Chucky, Andersson, Hanafin, Valimaki, Mangiapane, Jankowski, Bennett, Czarnik, and Kylington have yet to reach their potential and to have one of the most fierce competitors in the league, when he is inspired, out on the ice making room for whoever he is playing with will be a good thing.

Edmonton has no forward depth. It should not have been surprise that with no talent around him Looch stumbled. You look at Edmonton's forwards and there is/was nothing there. Kassian (Ditched by several teams), Gagner (destroyed by edmonton early on and back after 10 teams), Granlund (Not good enough for Calgary or Vancouver), Chaisson (Scraps from Calgary and Colorado), and a 35 Brodziak... Reminds me of the 2014 Flames.

Lucic is not the offensive star to create plays... He is the brute force and ignorance to bang pucks in from the crease. Don't think I saw Neal within 10 ft of the net last year.

 

[DCDM]

Having watched him play on both sides of the puck, and reviewing that body of work in terms of production, it really makes out a profile of a player who can be effectively replaced by an AHLer without hurting the team.

There's a lot I like about your post but the thing that stands out most to me is the fact that when Neal was injured for 18 games (or however long it was), freaking Austin Czarnik came in and did his job the same or better for that stretch of time. Would anyone put Czarnik and Neal on the same level on paper? Doubtful. Yet in that role, Czarnik achieved the same or more than Neal did in a far shorter length of time.

 

[joescores]

Can we please stop panicking and writing this guy off? He is a Flame and we give to our players a chance. I must say I needed 10 games of Neal last season and I realised it wasn't meant to be, top 6 or bottom 6. I might give to Milan longer leash cause I believe his attitude has a higher threshold that Neal's, who has been known as an inept attitude player throughout his career. On how many teams he has been by now? There isn't a smoke without a fire...

We are Calgary Flames- the best team and the best hockey fan base in the world. Let's hug the big man and welcome him as one of us. He belongs.

 

[Bounces R Way]

I'm just not sure what talent he is supposed to have. He honestly wasn't an NHL player last year. It appears that any success he's had in the past must have been a by-product of his linemates (thus making him an interchangeable part), because he isn't able to create anything by himself. He can't skate past anyone, he can't outmuscle anyone, he can't deceive anyone with his hands, and he is unable to shoot the puck past a goalie from range. Sure, he'll put the puck in the net if set up to do so, but so will literally any NHL player.

You don't score 270 goals in this league without talent. Neal shot 5% last year and averaged the lowest TOI since his rookie year. I'm not defending the guy because his give a shit meter rubbed me wrong from the get go but at the time of the signing he should of been a good fit. Plays RW, threat to score from the outside, decent on the boards, seemed like a decent option for the 1RW spot. Lindholm came in and was simply just better.

He's a guy you absolutely need to spoon feed easy starts and PP time too, he's excelled when playing with players better than him to get him the puck in a scoring position. The Flames never really gave him that shot in any meaningful way, but then again he certainly didn't earn it either. I find shooting to be the last thing that goes for guys as they age, after skating, puck handling, defense, and everything else. Maybe James Neal is an exception to that rule because I do agree with the rest of your post we never even saw one of those laser snipes that made me OK with his contract to begin with. If he has after all totally lost that skill then he'll be worse than useless and I'll be glad to be rid of him.

My only quibble here is Neal is the more talented goal scorer. In regards to a 200 ft game, ability to set others up, physicality and defensively Lucic is more talented. There really is no comparison in all the other areas. Without Neal scoring Calgary put up the second most goals... It is likely players like Chucky, Andersson, Hanafin, Valimaki, Mangiapane, Jankowski, Bennett, Czarnik, and Kylington have yet to reach their potential and to have one of the most fierce competitors in the league, when he is inspired, out on the ice making room for whoever he is playing with will be a good thing.

Edmonton has no forward depth. It should not have been surprise that with no talent around him Looch stumbled. You look at Edmonton's forwards and there is/was nothing there. Kassian (Ditched by several teams), Gagner (destroyed by edmonton early on and back after 10 teams), Granlund (Not good enough for Calgary or Vancouver), Chaisson (Scraps from Calgary and Colorado), and a 35 Brodziak... Reminds me of the 2014 Flames.

Lucic is not the offensive star to create plays... He is the brute force and ignorance to bang pucks in from the crease. Don't think I saw Neal within 10 ft of the net last year.

Physicality and defense maybe. I've watched plenty of Lucic the last couple years. He's slow in every sense of the word, can't take a pass, can't make a pass, basically a mound of meaty molasses on ice. I'm not going to dump on the guy anymore than I already have because now he plays for my team but he's not good.

Have to hope his time in Edmonton has put a chip on his shoulder and he comes into camp motivated to contribute to this team. He was a force in Boston, willing to go through a wall for his teammates, he's going to need to channel that kind of play if he wants to maintain his status as a NHL player.

 

[Anglesmith]

He's a guy you absolutely need to spoon feed easy starts and PP time too, he's excelled when playing with players better than him to get him the puck in a scoring position. The Flames never really gave him that shot in any meaningful way, but then again he certainly didn't earn it either.

A lot of people say this in the media and the fanbase, and Neal himself apparently had the same gripe, but I don't feel like it is true at all. Neal, on multiple occasions, was put up with the big boys for stretches of games. Even during the stretches where he was on a different line, he was guaranteed 2-3 shifts a night with Monahan and Gaudreau following a penalty kill. He was signed to play in that spot. The team would have been more effective with him thriving in that spot, and you have to think that all of the front office wanted to see that happen. I feel like the bar was pretty low for him to stay in that spot at the start of the season, and yet he still failed to clear it.

He wasn't able to stick on the line not because Lindholm helped the line more than he did, but because with Neal on the line, our top line dragged down the entire team. Peters probably would have traded a dip in production from the top line for more secondary scoring via Lindholm being on a different line so long as the top line could still be effective with Neal, but he had to abandon this plan every time it was attempted because the top line instantly turned into a liability. In the end, Neal's slotting in the lineup became less about where he was effective and more about where he did the least damage to the team.

 

[Calculon]

Neal has always needed a playmaker to get him his looks. That's how it's always been with him. He's not the type to go out and create a bunch on his own but pair him with a high end passer (B.Richards, Malkin, etc.) and he'll flourish. It's the Flames' own folly that they never did that for any serious length of time; they wasted the asset, however meagre and overpaid it might have been. And the opportunity for them was right there in the second half when the top line went ice cold, even if meant moving replacing Monahan with a better defensive centre in Lindholm.

And that's the thing with sending Neal to Edmonton. No matter how poor his attitude is or how badly he fits in, their utter lack of depth and NHL talent guarantees him all the opportunity he could ask for and then some. He'll get his minutes and powerplay time with McDavid or Hopkins and that alone almost ensures he'll bounce back to his usual offensive outputs regardless of where he sits in the lockerroom.

Lucic on the other hand, is already penciled in for third line minutes, third line linemates and second unit powerplay time, if any at all. In other words, 20 to 30 points over the season would be a wild success. I don't doubt that he'll show up motivated, at least for the first month or so. A second wind maybe in January or February. But all the rest of the months; the same listless efforts, lack of speed, disappearing hands that were his routine in Edmonton. He'll get in his hits and the odd staged fight but it's not likely to mean anything. It certainly didn't with the Oilers.

Power forwards like Lucic simply don't age well. That's been shown over and over and over again. And even at his best, he was never consistent. The things Oilers fans complained about are the same complaints Kings fans and Bruins fans (during the later years of his tenure there) voiced before them. Flames fans will be joining in soon enough.

So really in comparison to Neal, the Flames added some hits and a similar level of offence in exchange for a buyout proof contract and a NMC. Unless Neal's hands have completely disappeared, he'll likely put around 20 goals next season due to opportunity alone and Treliving seems to understand all of this based on the conditions of that third round pick.

 

[Lunatik]

A lot of people say this in the media and the fanbase, and Neal himself apparently had the same gripe, but I don't feel like it is true at all. Neal, on multiple occasions, was put up with the big boys for stretches of games. Even during the stretches where he was on a different line, he was guaranteed 2-3 shifts a night with Monahan and Gaudreau following a penalty kill. He was signed to play in that spot. The team would have been more effective with him thriving in that spot, and you have to think that all of the front office wanted to see that happen. I feel like the bar was pretty low for him to stay in that spot at the start of the season, and yet he still failed to clear it.

He wasn't able to stick on the line not because Lindholm helped the line more than he did, but because with Neal on the line, our top line dragged down the entire team. Peters probably would have traded a dip in production from the top line for more secondary scoring via Lindholm being on a different line so long as the top line could still be effective with Neal, but he had to abandon this plan every time it was attempted because the top line instantly turned into a liability. In the end, Neal's slotting in the lineup became less about where he was effective and more about where he did the least damage to the team.

To add to this, Neal played 17.5% of his ES ice-time with with Gaudreau/Monahan (8.26%) or Backlund/Tkachuk (9.24%) and managed just 1 point total with those lines.

 

[Anglesmith]

Neal has always needed a playmaker to get him his looks. That's how it's always been with him. He's not the type to go out and create a bunch on his own but pair him with a high end passer (B.Richards, Malkin, etc.) and he'll flourish. It's the Flames' own folly that they never did that for any serious length of time; they wasted the asset, however meagre and overpaid it might have been. And the opportunity for them was right there in the second half when the top line went ice cold, even if meant moving replacing Monahan with a better defensive centre in Lindholm.

And that's the thing with sending Neal to Edmonton. No matter how poor his attitude is or how badly he fits in, their utter lack of depth and NHL talent guarantees him all the opportunity he could ask for and then some. He'll get his minutes and powerplay time with McDavid or Hopkins and that alone almost ensures he'll bounce back to his usual offensive outputs regardless of where he sits in the lockerroom.

Lucic on the other hand, is already penciled in for third line minutes, third line linemates and second unit powerplay time, if any at all. In other words, 20 to 30 points over the season would be a wild success. I don't doubt that he'll show up motivated, at least for the first month or so. A second wind maybe in January or February. But all the rest of the months; the same listless efforts, lack of speed, disappearing hands that were his routine in Edmonton. He'll get in his hits and the odd staged fight but it's not likely to mean anything. It certainly didn't with the Oilers.

Power forwards like Lucic simply don't age well. That's been shown over and over and over again. And even at his best, he was never consistent. The things Oilers fans complained about are the same complaints Kings fans and Bruins fans (during the later years of his tenure there) voiced before them. Flames fans will be joining in soon enough.

So really in comparison to Neal, the Flames added some hits and a similar level of offence in exchange for a buyout proof contract and a NMC. Unless Neal's hands have completely disappeared, he'll likely put around 20 goals next season due to opportunity alone and Treliving seems to understand all of this based on the conditions of that third round pick.

I really think you're coming at this backwards. You're essentially saying that the Flames should have prioritized the optics of the Neal signing over winning.

Yes, the Flames could have forced a square peg into a round hole all season long. They could have kept Neal on the top line despite the massive decrease in effectiveness. They could have moved heaven and earth to attempt to drag Neal to the 20-goal plateau. But instead, they decided to be the best team in the Western Conference.

Neal's performance with the Oilers doesn't impact his value to the Flames, because, as you pointed out, his production isn't a reflection of his ability so much as how much the team is willing to sacrifice in order to get him points. Fact of the matter is that if he's forced into a top line role all year long in Edmonton, he's going to decrease the effectiveness of that top line, and the team will suffer. If they do it anyway, we'll be revelling in another miserable season for the Oilers.

All we know, from a Flames-centric point of view, is that Neal, at $5.25M per season, wasn't making the Flames any better compared to an AHL replacement. Likely Lucic won't either, but we're saving some cap space and adding someone who can be an effective fourth liner and may have upside. Neal had none here because of our commitment to winning.

 

[super6646]

In the end, this feels like a move made a year too soon. Even if our cheapass ownership didn’t want to buy Neal out, the fact that tre settled for a 4th liner for marginally less still f***ing sucks. In this case, I would’ve preferred giving Neal another year and hoping to god he marginally improves his value. There is no upside in lucic’s game, regardless of what advanced stats tell you. His hands have all but vanished, and is skating is truely terrible. As his abilities further decline, it makes things even more complicated as we can’t move him because of his nmc, and the bonuses guarantee a buyout is out of the picture. The final year of his contract is also when Gaudreau is supposed to get an extension.... so have fun with that tre.

 

[Anglesmith]

In the end, this feels like a move made a year too soon. Even if our cheapass ownership didn’t want to buy Neal out, the fact that tre settled for a 4th liner for marginally less still ****ing sucks. In this case, I would’ve preferred giving Neal another year and hoping to god he marginally improves his value. There is no upside in lucic’s game, regardless of what advanced stats tell you. His hands have all but vanished, and is skating is truely terrible. As his abilities further decline, it makes things even more complicated as we can’t move him because of his nmc, and the bonuses guarantee a buyout is out of the picture. The final year of his contract is also when Gaudreau is supposed to get an extension.... so have fun with that tre.

I think that if there weren't locker-room issues, he probably would have just held Neal for one more year. It seems that his hand was somewhat forced into making a move. He saw this year first-hand what removing a locker-room issue can do for a team.

 

[crackdown44]

For what it’s worth I don’t think we would have bought out Neal anyway so that portion of it doesn’t irk me too much

Mind you we would have had the option to tie assets to him in order to send him to a team willing to buy him out in the later stages of his contract, now we’ll no longer have that option

 

[Fig]

In the end, this feels like a move made a year too soon. Even if our cheapass ownership didn’t want to buy Neal out, the fact that tre settled for a 4th liner for marginally less still ****ing sucks. In this case, I would’ve preferred giving Neal another year and hoping to god he marginally improves his value. There is no upside in lucic’s game, regardless of what advanced stats tell you. His hands have all but vanished, and is skating is truely terrible. As his abilities further decline, it makes things even more complicated as we can’t move him because of his nmc, and the bonuses guarantee a buyout is out of the picture. The final year of his contract is also when Gaudreau is supposed to get an extension.... so have fun with that tre.

TL;DR - The funny thing is that if Treliving wasn't so good at contracts, we don't have the Neal situation. IMO we are in a fine place, but a contract like Neal just squandered all the extra flexibility that Treliving built up over the last few seasons.


Perhaps it feels like a year early, but it seemed like Neal turned toxic quickly after arriving in Calgary, so maybe Tre decided to move him before he went nuclear on the room. He had to go with something that would be more palatable to ownership than salary cap in the actual cash owed to ownership to make it work. We don't know who instigated it first, but Lucic's real cash is definitely something that would be ownership preferred if dead contracts are concerned. Lucic can be bought out in 2 years at a reasonable amount, but that's the year after the expansion draft in the 2020 off season. It does seem like Neal is in the perfect place to rebound as a top 6 winger in Edmonton, vs Lucic is still a seriously overpaid anchor here in our bottom 6. Consider that we were mainly just hoping that Neal ends up doing what Hudler did a few seasons back and he just really couldn't. Hudler was able to play up and down the lineup too, but again, Neal couldn't do that.

By all accounts, it seems Lucic has already agreed to waive for that the expansion draft, but is unwilling to waive for other movements without his consent. I think the NMC is either intact or completely removed if modified. Nothing in between. Flames are willing to honor the NMC (doesn't affect buyout in two seasons) as long as Lucic doesn't take up a slot in the expansion draft. I believe I read that the earliest Lucic could essentially waive the NMC for the expansion draft is Jan 1, 2020. I think quite a few of us are nervous about that, but it seemed obvious that Treliving wouldn't allow something dumb like that to continue to exist at the draft. I wouldn't be surprised if Treliving would rather buyout Lucic prior to the draft and take the salary cap hit rather than use a slot on Lucic. But that scenario sucks too. I think we as fans aren't wrong to be nervous about that, but I am leaning towards Lucic is a solid guy and the fact Flames were willing to honor his NMC means he will honor his part of the deal and waive it for Seattle.

As much as I'm sure your point about Gaudreau is more along the lines of the salary shuffle, TBH, it seems like Treliving didn't really sweat all too much during contract negotiations in the first place. Sure, he's in an awkward situation right now, but the remainder of the salary structure was all his own doing. I mean, sure. It at times always seems odd that he's super against the cap when he has to go negotiate extensions, but he always seems walk out of the situation with a great deal for the org and the player. Remember Gio's 9MM ask? Gaudreau's similar ask if not 8MM? I mean, we were far less concerned with Hanifin and Lindholm by the time we acquired them, but those were still solid deals that we wondering at times if it's too good to be true. The guy has never wavered in ensuring good contracts hit the books. I don't think we should be as worried for Tkachuk, Bennett and Rittich. But... oddly enough, we are in this situation, because Treliving worked hard to give himself flexibility which gave him the ability to sign a contract like Neal's in the first place. If he had not been so good at contracts, no Neal/Lucic situation. Just a bodies needing raises that have less cap to work with (if that 5.4MM had been absorbed by slightly higher AAV on Gaudreau and Gio for instance.

UFA is a serious Achilles heel though. That and he seems to frequently get the wrong end of the stick when it comes to vets that just suddenly fail when they are acquired for Calgary. Oddly enough I believe only Frolik and Engelland actually lived up to their contracts. Everyone else either started OK, then ended up cratering extremely fast (Hiller, Elliott and Jagr included), or just seemed like we were sold a bill of goods rather than any content (ie: Brouwer, Neal, Raymond etc.).

 

[Fig]

For what it’s worth I don’t think we would have bought out Neal anyway so that portion of it doesn’t irk me too much

Mind you we would have had the option to tie assets to him in order to send him to a team willing to buy him out in the later stages of his contract, now we’ll no longer have that option

If I had to evaluate the salary cap situation and assuming no major screw ups in my assumptions... I see it this way with Treliving magic and Lucic deal factored in.

Year 1 (This year): Extend Tkachuk, Bennett and Rittich with only requirement being to buy out Stone or trading at 50% if needed. Frolik might not be moved... but if he is, then the Stone move doesn't happen. I think the RFA extensions will be slightly higher with less Treliving magic than normal, but not horribly high to the point of being forced to move a player to make things fit.

Year 2 (Expansion draft). Buyout Lucic just prior to expansion draft if NMC is not waived as worst case scenario. First year hit is around 4.5MM AAV IIRC, later two seasons are like half a mil which is manageable. This is mostly absorbed by the fact that there are no serious raises that need to be considered that off season and Stone/Frolik's contract expiring (if not moved). Easily dealt with by using ELC/League minimum for 1 season. It's rough in the worst case scenario, but manageable.

Year 3: The biggest dead caps all expire (other than Lucic) and remainder of Lucic buyout is low. I believe we have a bunch of extensions in this year, but overall we get cap when we need it the most. We can still buyout Lucic if required as a worst case scenario, or maybe Lucic would be open to be traded again in a better case scenario.


If looking at it from this perspective, this still sucks, but I can see the wiggle room that perhaps Treliving sees. Lucic's buyout is significantly better than Neal's if we make it to year 2 or 3 and since we don't have any significant extensions in year 2, we can ride him out to year 3 with or without a buyout in year 2. Lucic's deal is considered buyout proof because it's front loaded, but it's actually drops to nearly nothing late in the contract. It sucks in general to have to ride out Lucic's deal from a fan criticism perspective, but Treliving is far more concerned about ownership which control his fate. The lower real cash for a roster guy who ultimately would not have succeeded anyways is an easier sell for ownership while we wait for year 3. That and ignoring the chunk of dead cap, Lucic's contract blows hardcore in year 2, but is actually extremely more preferable in year 3. Neal would have probably not rebounded and while it would suck slightly less up to the expansion draft, it actually is worse by a factor of 3x if I'm not mistaken the moment the expansion draft ends.

I'm looking at a ballpark figure of the worst case scenario for the next 3 seasons and honestly speaking, I don't think we are as boned as previously thought. That's encouraging, but let's not let optimism fog the ultimate truth that Lucic's contract sucks. He might be a good dude and he might be able to do more at 5.25 than Neal at 5.75... but the contract still sucks and is way overpaid for what we are expecting. That being said, Lucic's contract does allow the pain to stop early. It's not as long of a ride out as Horton, Clarkson or AMac. That's the silver lining I can see.

 

[Mobiandi]

Not to derail the thread but on the point about Gaudreau, Treliving should/will likely be doing his due diligence to explore his interest in re-signing in the coming year.

There may be 3 years left on his deal but his value will plummet due to the 26 team NTC in the final year. There is a strong possibility he gets traded next summer because we don't want to get caught in another Iginla situation

 

[Rubi]

I'm okay with this trade now after reading the stories that Neal was extremely unhappy playing for the Flames and his place in the lineup. You know its bad when 1 year into a 5 yr contract the player goes to management and requests a trade. Personally before this came out I would have given Neal another year to prove his worth but nobody wants a player on the club that doesn't want to be there and isn't 100% invested in winning.
Looks like Treliving was stuck between a rock and a hard place with regards to making a trade deal for Neal (a buyout just wasn't an option for Flames management) and if the best he could do was a swap with the despised Oilers you know the there wasn't a lot of interest out there that wouldn't have either cost the Flames $$ by eating a portion of Neal's contract of by a deal sweetener that would have cost one of our prospects.

If Lucic can score 10+ goals I'll be very happy... particularly if his presence in the lineup provides and intimidation factor.

 

[super6646]

I'm okay with this trade now after reading the stories that Neal was extremely unhappy playing for the Flames and his place in the lineup. You know its bad when 1 year into a 5 yr contract the player goes to management and requests a trade. Personally before this came out I would have given Neal another year to prove his worth but nobody wants a player on the club that doesn't want to be there and isn't 100% invested in winning.
Looks like Treliving was stuck between a rock and a hard place with regards to making a trade deal for Neal (a buyout just wasn't an option for Flames management) and if the best he could do was a swap with the despised Oilers you know the there wasn't a lot of interest out there that wouldn't have either cost the Flames $$ by eating a portion of Neal's contract of by a deal sweetener that would have cost one of our prospects.

If Lucic can score 10+ goals I'll be very happy... particularly if his presence in the lineup provides and intimidation factor.

What’s with the new avatar?

 

[JGaudreau]

I am looking forward to having Lucic on our team no matter what anybody says.

 

[Rubi]

What’s with the new avatar?

My feelings about last years playoff performance. I'll change it once the lineup is set and I have new hope for the season and the 2020 playoffs.
Expect a new avatar on or before Oct 2

 

[super6646]

My feelings about last years playoff performance. I'll change it once the lineup is set and I have new hope for the season and the 2020 playoffs.
Expect a new avatar on or before Oct 2

Ahhh... that's what I thought.

You unexpectedly disappeared for a bit there...

 

[Rubi]

Ahhh... that's what I thought.

You unexpectedly disappeared for a bit there...

I was unhappy with losing to the Avs and its taken me a while to want to talk hockey again. All is good now.

 

[InfinityIggy]

I was unhappy with losing to the Avs and its taken me a while to want to talk hockey again. All is good now.

I guess you could say you were on a Flamescation.

 

[super6646]

I was unhappy with losing to the Avs and its taken me a while to want to talk hockey again. All is good now.

That's good to hear man. Despite the utter ridiculousness of his arguments at times, it was sad to see OKG go. The Flames community is already too small as it is on this site.

 

[lightstorm]

Pencilling Neal in with Mony and Gaudreau was incredibly dumb from the get go, still cant believe Treliving thought it would work.

You simply cant have two slow shooter on your top line, then add one small playmaker. All 3 defensively ignorant and all 3 unable to retrieve pucks.

You'd have to split Monahan and Gaudreau to accommodate Neal and he simply isnt good enough to warrant that, but something lile this might have worked:

Gaudreau - Backlund - Neal (playmaker, two way player, shooter)

Tkachuk - Monahan - Lindholm (two slower players offset by Lindholm's two way awareness and Matt's grittyness)