Player Discussion James “The Real Deal” Neal a Flame! 5 years, 28.75 million.

[Sparky93]

Neal's doing all the right things. He gets about 1 big scoring chance a game. Eventually, they have to start going in. I'd move him up to the first line and move Monahan down with Tkachuk and Bennett. If they stink up the joint, just reset the line's during the game.

What's the worst that can happen?

What good would that do? He’s getting the looks, he just isn’t converting. Someone mentioned his stick earlier, could be it. I rarely remember him getting good wood on a shot this year. Mind you, making close to $6 million a year, I have a hard time believing he can’t get whatever stick built he wants.

 

[Fig]

What good would that do? He’s getting the looks, he just isn’t converting. Someone mentioned his stick earlier, could be it. I rarely remember him getting good wood on a shot this year. Mind you, making close to $6 million a year, I have a hard time believing he can’t get whatever stick built he wants.

He's rich, but not that rich.

Something strange is happening over at Easton

Easton hockey is no more after Bauer bought them out. Bauer supposedly bought the Easton brand from the failing PSG company to literally kill the competition. Keeping Easton hockey around would be cannibalizing their other Bauer hockey lines. Sure Neal could have probably bought a few hundred, but I think part of the issue is also the NHL licensing deal stuff too.

Edit:
Mike Green Is Playing With an Easton Stealth Stick That Was Discontinued Almost a Decade Ago

Here's an inside look on Mike Green talking about what it's like transitioning from a stick that was discontinued.

 

[super6646]

He's rich, but not that rich.

Something strange is happening over at Easton

Easton hockey is no more after Bauer bought them out. Bauer supposedly bought the Easton brand from the failing PSG company to literally kill the competition. Keeping Easton hockey around would be cannibalizing their other Bauer hockey lines. Sure Neal could have probably bought a few hundred, but I think part of the issue is also the NHL licensing deal stuff too.

Edit:
Mike Green Is Playing With an Easton Stealth Stick That Was Discontinued Almost a Decade Ago

Here's an inside look on Mike Green talking about what it's like transitioning from a stick that was discontinued.

So he can't shoot with his new stick? That's great...

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Bauer... Brouwer...

Illuminati confirmed.

 

[Fig]

So he can't shoot with his new stick? That's great...

Eh, more like not used to it. He's maybe shot hundreds of thousands of times with a specific stick. Give him a new stick that reacts differently and he has to relearn the muscle memory and split second timing from scratch. If he's not confident and not feeling good, it always seems like you're half a step behind.

I mentioned earlier this year his shot looked like a muffin in comparison to prior year highlights. IMO Neal will will wake up one day and be back to his old sniping ways.

 

[Bounces R Way]

He's using a new stick, plus the sun was in his eyes, and there might be too much dairy in his diet, people talking in his backstroke, helmet doesn't fit right, etc etc etc

I do hate using a new stick tho. Throws off everything.

 

[Ainsy01]

Will become expansion draft bait once again

 

[Pizza the Hutt]

Yeah, we're going to lose a good D-man, not Neal.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

I think the only solution is to start playing Kylington and Andersson as wingers, giving them the Yahoo Fantasy Sports style dual eligibility

 

[DFF]

Yeah, we're going to lose a good D-man, not Neal.

2021 Gio can move there to retire

 

[Pizza the Hutt]

2021 Gio can move there to retire

He'll still have an NTC - not sure how that will work with the expansion draft.

 

[Fig]

He'll still have an NTC - not sure how that will work with the expansion draft.

I believe in the last expansion draft, NTC had no bearing as it's not a trade. However, NMC had bearing as it was a movement of a player.

A player could waive his NMC to allow exposure which MAF did. NMC however could be enforced by the player to block being exposed in the expansion draft (forced use of a slot) and Phaneuf did this.

 

[crackdown44]

I think the only solution is to start playing Kylington and Andersson as wingers, giving them the Yahoo Fantasy Sports style dual eligibility

That’s honestly really interesting. I wonder if there are express rules about something like that. Say you played a D at forward for the last 20 games of the season or so because you were out of the playoff picture and wanted him to be eligible as a forward for expansion protection.

Would that be legal?

 

[Fig]

That’s honestly really interesting. I wonder if there are express rules about something like that. Say you played a D at forward for the last 20 games of the season or so because you were out of the playoff picture and wanted him to be eligible as a forward for expansion protection.

Would that be legal?

I can't seem to find the info, but no I don't believe that's legal. But there really wasn't such significant cases in the prior draft either.

I believe I read somewhere the player must play that position for the majority of their professional games played to qualify for that position (AHL is considered professional IIRC). But I can't find it. So to be legal, the player would have to play significantly enough games at that position to outnumber the previous games played at the other position. And we're talking games in excess of those 2 years professional play which causes them to be available in the draft in the first place.

We'd probably have to convert Kylington full time to C/W from now till expansion draft to even have a chance at arguing he's not a dman. Plus he probably would have to play at least a full season as a forward to avoid the league pointing at the fact it seemed like an obvious circumvention of the protection criteria.

Engelland, Burns and Buff were all obvious dmen in the last draft. So I think it's easy to see that a team couldn't have just played them at forward for a few games and hide them in front as opposed to a dman slot.

 

[BobColesNasalCavity]

James Neal 3 goals.

Garnet Hathaway 3 goals.

 

[Kahvi]

James Neal 3 goals.

Garnet Hathaway 3 goals.

and both would be top6 in goals for Oilers

 

[Zirakzigil]

and both would be top6 in goals for Oilers

 

[Fig]

and both would be top6 in goals for Oilers

I thought this was a joke, but when I checked the goals for the Oilers roster stats for goals scored... I laughed harder than I expected to.

 

[Volica]

I thought this was a joke, but when I checked the goals for the Oilers roster stats for goals scored... I laughed harder than I expected to.

I truly, truly, truly did not understand how people thought that that team was going to be a top team in Pacific, or in any way superior to Calgary.
They have literally zero depth. They were taking castoffs and league minimums just to see if they could keep somewhat afloat. Their defence is still horrible. They essentially had to do the Leafs thing and bank on Talbot finding his form and putting together a Vezina campaign.

Poor constructed. When you only have 3 top 6 forwards, no 1D... how was anyone expecting them to be even remotely good?

 

[SKRusty]

I truly, truly, truly did not understand how people thought that that team was going to be a top team in Pacific, or in any way superior to Calgary.
They have literally zero depth. They were taking castoffs and league minimums just to see if they could keep somewhat afloat. Their defence is still horrible. They essentially had to do the Leafs thing and bank on Talbot finding his form and putting together a Vezina campaign.

Poor constructed. When you only have 3 top 6 forwards, no 1D... how was anyone expecting them to be even remotely good?

I have been on your wagon for 2 seasons and when you dig deeper you find they have not developed one player in the AHL properly since Petry. The Oilers won't be good for at least 3-4 seasons and that is only if they replace Chiarelli before the trade deadline. He took a team that was short on talent on the back end and then traded away the front end depth and did nothing to improve their scouting or development system.

 

[Mobiandi]

I did think they would give it a good run for 3rd/4th in the Pacific but they have way too much money wrapped up in useless players.

20.1 million for Lucic, Spooner, Kassian, Russell, Sekera. Those contracts end between 2020 and 2023. Unless Chiarelli pulls out some impressive trades out of his ass coupled with a compliance buyout for Lucic, they're screwed for a while.

 

[Deen]

He just moseys around and has no compete level to him. I have never seen a more disinterested or lazy player in recent memory, I 100% think his lack of production is his own fault.

 

[1989]

He just moseys around and has no compete level to him. I have never seen a more disinterested or lazy player in recent memory, I 100% think his lack of production is his own fault.

He's been good enough by Peters' metric to keep him afloat, believing he is close to turning it around and that he's been playing a good game.

With how well the team is performing and trusting Peters' lines/decision making thus far, I don't see why you think they way you do.

 

[Mr Snrub]

We're nearing the midpoint of the season and Neal doesn't look noticeably better - in fact, I'd be more optimistic if he just wasn't shooting rather than him still getting chances and just not burying them. You can officially consider me concerned, I feel like I've given the guy a lot of leeway but it's getting to the point where it seems something drastic has to change in how he's playing.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

It’s the stick. He’s hating chances all over the place but whiffs on basically everyone. He will get used to it eventually. I think.