James Neal will score 40+ goals this year

[SeanMoneyHands]

I will bet anyone. He is gelling with MacDavid, MacDavid wanted him on the team and he is getting top line minutes. The biggest difference this year is he wants to be on the team and he is getting fully utilized, he is happy now. I believe he will put up 40+ goals this year and put up career highs.

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[Hynh]

Who the hell is MacDavid?

PS, jinx thread is jinxy

 

[voxel]

20-25 goals maybe. First game he was playing with Nuge at ES with PP1 time with McDavid. Second game was a blender to me as Tippett put back McDrai so Neal wasn’t the LW.

Line Combinations - Frozen Tools

 

[BlackDogg]

As jagr would say, he could score a hundred goals.

 

[Cellee]

It was a decent trade for both teams

 

[Mr. Met]

If James Neal scores 40+ goals this year I'll eat my hat

 

[Pizza!Pizza!]

Ken Holland is a genius. He may be the one man that can save Edmonton.

 

[super6646]

Shit trade is shit. Even if Neal doesn’t find his game in Edmonton, the flames are screwed in a few years due to a lack of options with the lucic contract. Dumbfounds me what tre was thinking giving Edmonton every benefit of the deal.

And anway, after two games? Really?

 

[Chuck Norris Trophy]

I seriously doubt it but it would hilarious if he did.

 

[Oilers Propagandist]

**** trade is ****. Even if Neal doesn’t find his game in Edmonton, the flames are screwed in a few years due to a lack of options with the lucic contract. Dumbfounds me what tre was thinking giving Edmonton every benefit of the deal.

And anway, after two games? Really?

My dude Neal has not scored 2 goals in a game since he was with the Knights, he already performed better than lucic has since the middle of the 17-18 season when his play fell off a cliff. 2 games? Cheers to another 4 more seasons of this, m8.

 

[Del Preston]

40 goals
30 assists
100 points

 

[The Panther]

It's a bit of a tall order to expect the guy to score 40 goals when he has done so once in his career and never in the past seven years.

Just because a guy had one two-goal game doesn't mean he's going to suddenly have a career season.

 

[Ducksauce]

Neal will get 20 goals, I'm sure of it.

The thing is he's basically just taking those goals from Chaisson who had the same cushy deployment last year. Only difference is the Oilers will pay 6.5 million + a 3rd round pick for those 20 goals instead of 1 million.

 

[7even]

40 goals?

Sick of these threads lowballing Oilers players

 

[Rangers ftw]

“McDavid wanted him on the team”... yeah f****** right lol. Like he had a wishlist and Neal was on top of it.

 

[cpsman]

“McDavid wanted him on the team”... yeah f****** right lol. Like he had a wishlist and Neal was on top of it.

....But I thought this was actually well known. They trained together in the off season....


Even Bob Stauffer said McDavid was on board with it.
You might want to check your facts before you post.

EDIT: in all fairness it's bob stauffer "speculation" ... but that is usually the organization leaking info to him

 

[Panda Bear]

"SeanMoneyHands"

 

[tgoat]

Never would've thought that McDavid and Neal had a secret relationship

 

[Ducksauce]

And honestly, I get the whole Lucic is terrible thing, but just from both team's perspective it makes sense.

Edmonton had the worst winger depth in the league and desperately needed any type of skill up front. No one will say James Neal is a well rounded player, but he has proven that he does one skill well and that is finding the back of the net.

He needs to be playing with skilled players to make that happen now at this stage of his career because of how much he has slowed down. PP specialist kind of guy.

In Calgary he would be relegated to the third and fourth line as he was last season where he was a slow, defensive liability. They could have given him the opportunity to bounce back, but by all indication the situation had turned toxic. He was upset with the team for not getting a better opportunity (Lindholm's play stole that from him) and the team was upset with him for whining and not being a team player.

His effort level reflected how felt about the situation. In return, he was the Flames worst player and became a 5.75 million dollar healthy scratch.

With Lucic, he was brought into Edmonton with expectations. Clearly he could never live up to the hype of being a leader and replacing Taylor Hall while also being the ultimate protector and enforcer.

Neal would be hurting Calgary's bottom two lines where at least Lucic brings a valuable asset to the bottom six (even though he is drastically overpaid). He will forecheck, stand in front of the net, win board battles, and stick up for his teammates.

At the end of the day it's the best of a bad situation for both teams. Both contracts were massive mistakes and a change of scenery was best for everyone. Edmonton gets a shooter that will steal all of Chaisson's goals and Calgary gets an enforcer that brings a unique skill set to their bottom six. Both players are drastically overpaid, but with Edmonton retaining on Lucic it gave Calgary just enough space to sign Tkachuk without giving up anyone else on the roster. The 3rd is a bonus as well.

 

[Hank Plank]

Neal will score 93 goals this season I'll bet anyone.

 

[tmurfin]

 

[Rangers ftw]

....But I thought this was actually well known. They trained together in the off season....


Even Bob Stauffer said McDavid was on board with it.
You might want to check your facts before you post.

EDIT: in all fairness it's bob stauffer "speculation" ... but that is usually the organization leaking info to him

Could you please highlight the part that says that McDavid wanted Neal on the team?

 

[McFlyingV]

Each team rid a player that wasn't adding anything for a player that could add something needed.

Decent trade all things considered

What does Lucic add? And please don't say protection for Gaudreau or quality 4th line minutes.

 

[cpsman]

Could you please highlight the part that says that McDavid wanted Neal on the team?

"My guess is Connor McDavid will be fully onboard with acquiring Neal."

EDIT: Like I said, it was speculation. But a lot of people were talking about this connection and how this was likely that he was on board with the acquisition and maybe even was involved in the discussions with management. Nothing confirmed, but it's not an absurdity like how you were treating it with an f bomb.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

....But I thought this was actually well known. They trained together in the off season....


Even Bob Stauffer said McDavid was on board with it.
You might want to check your facts before you post.

EDIT: in all fairness it's bob stauffer "speculation" ... but that is usually the organization leaking info to him

Holy stretch, batman.

"my guess is Connor McDavid will be fully onboard with acquiring Neal" is a far cry from "McDavid wanted Neal on the team," lol. Hell it's probably closer to "McDavid doesn't give a shit whether Neal is here or Lucic." It's a freaking guess that McDavid won't be upset!

He didn't even look rejuvenated the other night or anything, he just went to the right spots to clean up the trash. That's useful for Edmonton for sure but let's not make it more than it is, he wasn't out there making plays like a harlem globetrotter or anything, he may as well have been Pat Maroon with good hands in front of the net.

All that being said I'm a big Gary Roberts truther so if he went hard at that training session good things could happen for him, especially if he's desperate to turn things around and prolong his career.