Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

[Signing] Flames sign Neal [5 years x $ 5.75m]


Recommended Posts

On July 2, 2018 at 11:09 AM, oldnews said:

I don't see these as comparables at all.

 

High end shutdown forwards simply don't tend to decline in the way top 6, ozone opportunist players like Neal do - and they're also not one hit wonders.   James Neal isn't much more than a goal scorer at this point - not very good underlying numbers, not good grit output....

 

A guy like Neal whose bread and butter is very high ozone starts (like 60% over his career) - and whose physical edge is already declining - as has his production ( a 60 pt player that is now a mid 40s pt player and still on contending team....)   I dont think these are comparables or comparable risks - at all.

 

Good two way top 6 players can sometimes transform their games, play a bottom six role and extend their careers.

That is not the story of players  like Beagle or Roussel etc - and I doubt Neal can make that his story.   I don't like this deal at the level he's playing and producing in the present and I really don't like it if he declines any more.

I don't see how Neal is a one hit wonder? Alright, maybe he isn't putting up 30-40 goals seasons, like he did in Pittsburgh, but he's been a consistent 20+ goal scorer/40-50 points getter, throughout his entire career. How often are you going to sign that kind of player on the open market for less than 6M? Not very often.

 

This signing is a solid one for Calgary and I kind of wished JB hopped on this one, as we need to replace the Twins' offensive numbers for next season. Beagle and Roussel won't be doing that, and at this moment Trev and co. are heavily relying on the youngster to do so. 

 

FYI, Calgary signed Neal for his scoring prowess, not to play defense. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, shiznak said:

I don't see how Neal is a one hit wonder? Alright, maybe he isn't putting up 30-40 goals seasons, like he did in Pittsburgh, but he's been a consistent 20+ goal scorer/40-50 points getter, throughout his entire career. How often are you going to sign that kind of player on the open market for less than 6M? Not very often.

Yes, his history of offensive production is almost as solid as Eriksson's...but not quite.

 

I don't think Calgary will like this deal in the 2nd half of it. But hopefully will for Calgary Neal is productive enough in the first half that it will have been worth it. That certainly hasn't been the case with LE.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, shiznak said:

I don't see how Neal is a one hit wonder?

I'm referring to him being relatively one-dimensional - a goal scorer.  And there are statistical indications of decline already.  He's not as physical as he used to be.  He's not a particularly good defensive forward.  He's a goal scorer - who at this age, and a 5 x 5.75 deal - is certainly risky - which says nothing about the cap situation Calgary was already in before signing him - for which I don't see any easy way out.  Those two factors together are what make me wonder why they did this - or why they signed Ryan and then did this.

Gambling on Neal producing with Monahan and Gaudreau may be a reasonable enough risk, at least in the shorter run - but the underlying conditions remain - they were already in a tight cap situation, and they signed a guy who's already left his prime.  Definitely a risky move.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On July 4, 2018 at 3:19 PM, oldnews said:

I'm referring to him being relatively one-dimensional - a goal scorer.  And there are statistical indications of decline already.  He's not as physical as he used to be.  He's not a particularly good defensive forward.  He's a goal scorer - who at this age, and a 5 x 5.75 deal - is certainly risky - which says nothing about the cap situation Calgary was already in before signing him - for which I don't see any easy way out.  Those two factors together are what make me wonder why they did this - or why they signed Ryan and then did this.

Gambling on Neal producing with Monahan and Gaudreau may be a reasonable enough risk, at least in the shorter run - but the underlying conditions remain - they were already in a tight cap situation, and they signed a guy who's already left his prime.  Definitely a risky move.

All lengthy free agent signings are a risk. If Neal can maintain his average scoring output for 3 out of the 5 seasons, I'd say the contract was worth it, if you compare to the other big name free agent signings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2018-07-02 at 8:29 AM, theo5789 said:

One has to wonder why players are so easily pried away from the finalists Knights. They have the cap room to outbid and perhaps they didn't want to set a precedent, but they did sign Reaves for almost 3 million.

 

I guess they're really banking on Tatar to be successful and feel Perron and Neal won't be big losses to them.

 

I'm not sure what their personal situation is, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to raise a family in Vegas - might have something to do with it. On the flip side they should be able to attract young players easily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, oldnews said:

And the majority of 30+ long term expensive UFA signings turn out.......to be.....mistakes.

Therefore in theory, the Beagle signing will turn out to be a mistake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Davathor said:

 

I'm not sure what their personal situation is, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to raise a family in Vegas - might have something to do with it. On the flip side they should be able to attract young players easily.

i think mcphee

is adopting the position

set out by old news

in the post directly above yours

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, shiznak said:

Therefore in theory, the Beagle signing will turn out to be a mistake.

failed equivalent.

 

Beagle is a 12 million deal.

Neal is 28.75 million deal.

 

Let alone the relative decline risks of shutdown/faceoff guys vs one dimensional top 6 scoring wingers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, shiznak said:

All lengthy free agent signings are a risk. If Neal can maintain his average scoring output for 3 out of the 5 seasons, I'd say the contract was worth it, if you compare to the other big name free agent signings.

Understatement of the year.

 

Now a days, you want all of your young core players locked up long term coming off their ELC and then by the time their 2nd contracts are up, you think about moving them out the door for what's hopefully the new wave of players. But it's that 3rd contract that almost always comes back to bite you. It's a young man's game. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 03/07/2018 at 10:53 AM, tera_ha said:

calgary fan here. can someone tell me what are they gonna do about their goaltending. :wacko:

They prob lost the bid for Lehnar to the Islanders. Next washed up aging goalie available is Craig Anderson, so keep an eye out for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 02/07/2018 at 5:38 AM, Drakrami said:

Actually Neal's proven himself to be able to succeed on 3 different teams. And he kickstarted Vegas' last year success quite a bit. I think this is a great signing by the flames to add offense to their already solid lineup. 

Yea I have to agree with you on this one for sure. 

 

I might not like Calgary but this is a solid signing. Character guy with incredible goal scoring ability. 

 

Would have loved if we signed him at this term & money. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...