Was the Lucic - Neal trade actually a win for the Flames?

[Frank the Tank]

“Let’s ignore the best part of Neals season so far like it didn’t exist”

Yeah, the Oilers banked 8-10 points because of Neal's hot start to the season. Those points will come in handy down the stretch.

 

[DJJones]

Lucic taking up a spot in the expansion draft is being overlooked. Plus you can't buy him out. Plus the best stretch of his season is still less productive than Neal has been. Plus he was a no show for the "tough" games the flames brought him in for, did he even play in the BoA? Legit saw nothing from him.

He can waive, not like they are going to pick him.

This was addressed by Brad the day of the trade and he said it was dealt with. Complete non-issue.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Like many. I do fantasy leagues. Neal has been injured for about two weeks and Lucic gets 2 goals and 4 assists. We get this thread,

Great thing about fantasy leagues is breaking down stats over 2/4/8/10/14 weeks

Neal is playing 2/3 line minutes and Lucic 3/4 minutes

Neal's worst stat is plus minus playing 10 minutes more per night than lucic

 

[barabas21]

Nobody wins this trade. Everyone just moves on with their lives feeling a little worse about themselves.

 

[KidLine93]

Just realized Neal would be tied for 2nd in goals on the flames

 

[CupofOil]

Neal will have the better regular season, but if flames make playoffs lucic will become the better player and it wont even be close unfortunately and I'm an oilers fan

Lucic was a complete ghost in the playoffs when he was 3 years younger and was awful for the Kings in the playoffs prior to that. The lack of skating gets exposed even more in the playoffs.

Lucic gets universally mocked a week ago, has a few decent games and all of a sudden the Flames are winners of this trade? Laughable.

 

[DJJones]

Just realized Neal would be tied for 2nd in goals on the flames

We don't have McDavid so he'd be down with Jankowski.

 

[ICanMotteBelieveIt]

Do you know what Lucic & Neal got in common? They're both over the hill..

I wouldn't want either one on my team.

 

[DEANYOUNGBLOOD17]

Calgary won the trade...... just follow the $$$

Calgary total outlay of $ is 13 mill counting retention . ..... for 4 years of Lucic (plus they receive a 3 rd rounder)

Edmonton total outlay is 29 million including 3 mill retention and 3 mill July 1 st signing bonus and Neals 5.75 mill salary x4. ( they lose a 3 end draft pick.....

anyway you look at it they are both crap and are not worth their cap hit / contract over the next 4 years..... Edmonton is paying 29 million$ and a 3rd real $ for their crap over 4 years and Calgary is paying 13 mill( real $) plus gaining a 3 rd Rnd pick for their crap.....

If you are the owner of the team and you have to employ a bad contract over 4 years.... which GM would you want ..... the GM that gets you a 3 rd round pick and pays 13 million real $ over 4 years or the GM that pays $ 29 million for slightly better smelling c***.

 

[Bond]

Do you know what Lucic & Neal got in common? They're both over the hill..

I wouldn't want either one on my team.

Neither do the Flames or Oilers. Signing Neal was one of Treliving's worst mistakes for the Flames

 

[McJesusSaves97]

Flames fans will pretend it was

 

[nbwingsfan]

We know the narrative to start the year when Neal was on fire, but that was obviously early season shenanigans we see with a lot of players around the NHL.

Since November 1, Neal has 8 goals and 16 points in 36 games, Lucic has 6 goals and 13 points in 40 games. Neal is playing almost 3 minutes a games more than Lucic in that time. Half of that being extra time being PP time with McDavid and Drai.

Lucic brings much more to the table than Neal as well. He hits, fights, plays hard. Neal is basically there to score points and is pacing with Lucic.

Can we now say this trade is not as lopsided as originally framed?

Lucic does not really fight anymore and is too slow for damaging hits. Also apparently anything done before November 1st just doesn’t count? Those goals he put up early on helped Edmonton get to where they are now. You can’t just not count them because you say so.

Long story short one guy has 19G/29pts in 50 games and doesn’t do much else

Another guy has 6G/16pts in 55 games and doesn’t do much else

This is an easy win for Edmonton

 

[Aceboogie]

This trade wasnt won based on on ice play. Both are marginal NHLers at best. Neal popping off a few goals at the start of the year was great, but only an extra bonus

The win was that Nela can be bought out much easier, and doesnt take up a spot in the expansion draft

TBH- Lucic could score 45 points this year, hit everything that moves & Neal could never score another point- and its still a win for the Oilers. Both have longer terms on the deal left, so 35 games of a sample size is nothing. The contract flexibility of Neal is much, much better

The Flame sare stuck with a turd. Either buy him out at an insane price, or have him cost you a protection spot and lose a good young player

When the Oilers had Lucic, I didnt really care about his current crap on ice play, I was moreso concerned about the future of that contract. Very glad that is not a worry anymore

 

[KidLine93]

He can waive, not like they are going to pick him.

This was addressed by Brad the day of the trade and he said it was dealt with. Complete non-issue.

Didn't people say this about Dion Phaneuf? And then he said f*** that I'm not waiving my NMC. It's not like Phaneuf was going to be picked in expansion anyways but he still exercised his NMC. If Lucic likes it in Calgary he can do whatever he wants no guarantee he waives.

 

[CupofOil]

Not for anything hockey skill related. You have one of the toughest guys in the league and he doesn't take someones head off during the most intense game of the year. He should have been throwing bombs.

No one cares about throwing hits and fighting against the Sharks. Seems like he got the message though, I actually saw him skate with the puck last night without losing possession. Crazy stuff.

That's fair but reading Flames fan opinion, he was getting criticized before the BoA.

The bottom line is that both teams lost once they signed these guys but Holland turned this into a little bit less of a loss based purely on contract parameters. On ice, both teams got a bit of an upgrade in their particular roles but I feel that a 20+ goal scorer is a bigger upgrade than a 4th liner who is a little better at even strength.

 

[DJJones]

Didn't people say this about Dion Phaneuf? And then he said **** that I'm not waiving my NMC. It's not like Phaneuf was going to be picked in expansion anyways but he still exercised his NMC. If Lucic likes it in Calgary he can do whatever he wants no guarantee he waives.

There's like a 0% chance he gets selected so why piss off the team? I'm sure they have a deal in place.

We're screwed on defense regardless of what he does anyway. We'll probably have to give them a 2nd to take someone non-essential.

 

[Jesus Take the Wheel]

He had a dominant October and has been a ghost since. 5v5 has been a disaster and has been leeching PP points off of two player on pace for over 130 points.

And if you ignore Lucic's past 2 games and a his hot start to December Lucic has 2 PP and 0 ES goals in 49 games this year. It's pretty easy to add small adjustments to a players season stats to try and show things in a different light to push a biased opinion

 

[DJJones]

That's fair but reading Flames fan opinion, he was getting criticized before the BoA.

The bottom line is that both teams lost once they signed these guys but Holland turned this into a little bit less of a loss based purely on contract parameters. On ice, both teams got a bit of an upgrade in their particular roles but I feel that a 20+ goal scorer is a bigger upgrade than a 4th liner who is a little better at even strength.

Sure, he's disappeared a few times this year. But so has everyone on our team. Brodie, Mangiapane and Ryan are probably the only two guys on the team that haven't been shit on by fans at some point throughout the year.

This year has been a trainwreck of inconsistency.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Calgary won the trade...... just follow the $$$

Calgary total outlay of $ is 13 mill counting retention . ..... for 4 years of Lucic (plus they receive a 3 rd rounder)

Edmonton total outlay is 29 million including 3 mill retention and 3 mill July 1 st signing bonus and Neals 5.75 mill salary x4. ( they lose a 3 end draft pick.....

anyway you look at it they are both crap and are not worth their cap hit / contract over the next 4 years..... Edmonton is paying 29 million$ and a 3rd real $ for their crap over 4 years and Calgary is paying 13 mill( real $) plus gaining a 3 rd Rnd pick for their crap.....

If you are the owner of the team and you have to employ a bad contract over 4 years.... which GM would you want ..... the GM that gets you a 3 rd round pick and pays 13 million real $ over 4 years or the GM that pays $ 29 million for slightly better smelling c***.

Cap hit

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

wE CaN bUy HiM oUt

iT wAs NeVeR gOnNa wOrK iN CaLgArY

 

[HugginThePost]

Lucic was a complete ghost in the playoffs when he was 3 years younger and was awful for the Kings in the playoffs prior to that. The lack of skating gets exposed even more in the playoffs.

Lucic gets universally mocked a week ago, has a few decent games and all of a sudden the Flames are winners of this trade? Laughable.

And what fan base doesn't do this Cup?

All you have to do is read through one of your game day threads and a player can go from being the biggest piece of shit and needs to be shot into the sun, to the best player on the team if he scores a goal.

The way HFOil flip flops on Nurse on a week to week basis is mind boggling. One day he's the second coming of Pronger, the nest you'd rather have Russel out there.

Not sure why you're going on and on about this point. IT's what fan bases do.....everyone is guilty of it.

Lucic got mocked for not showing up in a single game.. I was one of those doing the mocking.

I'm over it now and can look a the improvements he's been making since that point in time.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

Based on Lucic's NMC, I'll say that this is still a win for the Oilers

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

We don't have McDavid so he'd be down with Jankowski.

so he scores with skilled players...unlike Looch

 

[Aceboogie]

There's like a 0% chance he gets selected so why piss off the team? I'm sure they have a deal in place.

We're screwed on defense regardless of what he does anyway. We'll probably have to give them a 2nd to take someone non-essential.

This is what every fan whose team had a horrible player with a NMC said. Didnt happen then and wont happen next expansion draft

 

[blankall]

The bolded is certainly fair... but I'd caution you about Lucic... he's a fragile guy these days and is aging too. I wouldn't bet on him maintaining a high intersection of confidence/health.

Neal is already a shadow of his 28 year old self, but he can still stand in a spot and rip the puck. He can still dig in the corners and make smart plays when the puck is recovered... and with time, can still find his way to open ice. Like Lucic, he's a liability once the puck is turned over, but with him on the ice, that seems to happen a lot less than it did with Lucic.

Lucic isn't a liability once the puck is turned over. The Flames are giving him mostly defensive starts now. He leads the team in hits and is very difficult to play against on the boards. Despite all the trolling and back and forth here, Lucic is a very solid contributor in the Flames bottom six.

Neal is a PP specialist at this point. He plays with the best PP tandem in the league, but has only managed 6 goals in his last 30+ games. Neal rarely gets defensive starts (36.3%), as the Oilers know that Neal likely won't be able to catch up with the play. No one can dispute the hot start he got off to, but his play has been downright bad since then.