James Neal to the Flames

[yave1964]

 Per Mckenzie,

 

James Neal to the Flames 5 years at 5.75 million. He had turned down 5years/5million per to remain a Knight. going for stability and a final payday.

 

  For the Flames, they will likely rue the final year or two of the deal but that is what happens in free agency but they get a 20 plus goal scorer for a decade year in and year out like punching a clock with a nasty streak. Add him to the forward lines that have added skill now with Neal, Lindholm and Derek Ryan the Flames are deeper and tougher to play against up front. Short term like the deal quite a lot for them.

[OccamsRazor]

So a top line of Gaudreau Monahan Neal???? 

[JR Ewing]

-The term and dollars are the cost of doing business in the first week of July.

-He definitely makes the Flames more difficult to play against for the next few years. As ever, with UFA deals for guys at this age, it's the last couple of years which will hurt, but they can probably dig themselves from under it.

-He has shown a clear ability to play with highly skilled players, and could compliment Goudreau very well.

-About to enter the decline phase of his career, and an area of concern for me would be that he's coming off back-to-back years where he has continued to find the net, but also has found a way to be a minus player on teams with strong positive goal differentials.

-Adding him is probably good for an extra couple of wins. When you can do that without giving up players/picks, it's a good day.

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Well, good deal for the Flames.
 

Despite Neal still being generally regarded as a D-bag type player, he STILL IS a good player, produces, contributes in all manner of ways.
I did mention in another thread that while I think he is a good player, he also is a candidate for the "wheels falling off" at any time, so the Flames are taking a gamble here.

 

What I find more interesting, however, is that Neal reportedly turned down $5M/5Yrs to STAY in Vegas...to take the same term, but with just an extra $750K to move to Calgary.

 

First off, I think the situation in Vegas with regards to winning is more stable than Calgary (Flames, while looking like they are improved, still seem to need a number of pieces...including a non IR capable goalie), his salary, I assume would be in Canadian dollars with the Flames as opposed to American dollars in Vegas (though I could be wrong on that), AND the coaching, style, and depth of the Knights just seem better suited for a guy like Neal.

 

Only thing I can think of is that since Neal is already a past Cup winner, he is looking for a challenge and make more of an impact on a team that could really use it.... I.E. Calgary could use more of a bump in profile than the Knights at this point in time.

Also...maybe he knows something about what is going on behind the scenes in Vegas that many of us outside are not aware of....

 

I did think last season that perhaps the Knights played way over their heads and this season may not be so impressive for a variety of reasons.

They are returning with mostly the same roster intact (obviously minus Neal now and Perron earlier), but I dunno…..Maybe Mr. Knee-All knows something we don't about Vegas.

[mojo1917]

screw that guy, couldn't manage to keep building something with VGK, went for a payday instead. 

not that i can blame a bloke for wanting to get paid...and I've never been to Calgary, but, how can that situation be better than what's going on in Vegas ?

 

[JR Ewing]

13 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

First off, I think the situation in Vegas with regards to winning is more stable than Calgary (Flames, while looking like they are improved, still seem to need a number of pieces...including a non IR capable goalie), his salary, I assume would be in Canadian dollars with the Flames as opposed to American dollars in Vegas (though I could be wrong on that), AND the coaching, style, and depth of the Knights just seem better suited for a guy like Neal.

 

Canadian teams pay the players in US dollars.

 

 

13 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Only thing I can think of is that since Neal is already a past Cup winner, he is looking for a challenge and make more of an impact on a team that could really use it.... I.E. Calgary could use more of a bump in profile than the Knights at this point in time.

Also...maybe he knows something about what is going on behind the scenes in Vegas that many of us outside are not aware of....

 

I did think last season that perhaps the Knights played way over their heads and this season may not be so impressive for a variety of reasons.

They are returning with mostly the same roster intact (obviously minus Neal now and Perron earlier), but I dunno…..Maybe Mr. Knee-All knows something we don't about Vegas.

 

As ever, what we DON'T know about what's going on behind the scenes adds to a lot more than what we do know. For all we know, he didn't like living in Vegas. It happens; it's not everybody's cup of tea.