Baer.

Lucic is a heavy body but is struggling to move that body and dangle like he once could. Still able to move around and lay the body but he can't be as effective as he once was.

Neal while playing through two Stanley Cup finals in the past two seasons was justifiably worn down and out of gas last season. He mentioned his struggle to maintain his training levels etc over the previous couple of off seasons. I fully expect minimum 20 goals this season out of him in a secondary offensive role. He is the " real deal ". Put him in that Oilers lineup as a veteran who has shown in every year he can pot 20+ goals except last season and its a solid move for the Oilers.

The fact they look like they've paid money to save pennies in the Cap world is besides the point. They just added a legit top six scoring winger with veteran leadership.

Imho, Neal is already well past his due date.  I could probably score 10 goals with McJeebus on my line.  Neal’s body has broken down, nothing to be ashamed about as Father Time catches up with everyone....but he better score 20+ goals as he’s a defensive liability out there.  Got butter soft minutes and his line still bled goals against.

Just my opinion though.

your numbers are off

oilers will retain 12.5% of lucic's salary (or average of 570K / year based on 19 million owing to lucic after july 17)

they will be paying neal 5.75 million going forward

they paid lucic 3 million already

and have to pay 12.5 for the 3 million he is still owed for this season. .or 375k

so total salary paid by the oilers for both neal and lucic for just this season is 5.75 + 3 + 375k = 9.125 million 

that's some mozza ball the coilers are swallowing to say bye bye to milan