bro at least neal and khaira are useful, even if theyre overpaid. jack johnson is the WORST player in the NHL. And Murray was the worst starter this year. No way we're giving up Caleb Jones.

Neal is useful....oilers fans.

as bad as neal's contract is. I would take jones over johnson

mans had 19 goals this season while jack johnson was a literal pylon most nights

What the hell does JJ have to do with any of it? Is that the best you can do?

yeah, 7 goals in 5v5 play and his line was giving up more goals than they were scoring and his slow legs are a part of that.
Neal had his day, those days are gone. He's 33.
And for the record. they had to move Lucic to get rid of him. That shows you had bad that contract is viewed. 5.75 million over 3 years is much worse than 3.25 over 3.

Because Jack Johnson is included in the trade? Isn't that part obvious?
James Neal is a powerplay specialist. A pricy one at that, but he still provides some value. Jack Johnson was bad at every single thing he did. When he was on the ice, he was a constant negative. I much rather Neal for 5M than JJ for 3M

I hate to break it to you, but they are both very bad contracts. Neals being worse because it's almost 2x the cost. There is no lipstick on that pig.
There is a reason it took Lucic as the return to move him.
It's not even worth arguing. No one wants that contract. The penguins had Neal back in the day, when he was actually good. And even they moved on from him then.
They aren't taking him back now.

Because they know he's not useful. Which was the whole point. It's not a comparison between JJ and Neal. It's this absurd belief that Neal is useful.
He's not. The fact that you are trying to swap him for JJ tells you how useless he is.

We needed to retain on Lucic, and add a 3rd for the Flames to do that trade.
Neal is a useful player in a minimum league deal. He can score goals on the powerplay. Got lit up 5v5 because he was playing way too many minutes against top competition.
JJ on the other hand is still awful in a minimum league deal. That's the difference. You're pretending that awful deal = awful deal, when the JJ deal is obviously much, much worse. Neal is even retained for 2M in this deal for crying out loud. And adding Caleb Jones is laughable.

The retention means this deal is Jack Johnson at 3 x $5.25M going to Edmonton and Neal at $3.75M going to Pittsburgh. Laughable that this guy thinks that's reasonable.

you are still thinking this is about the trade.
This is not about the trade. This is about the absurd belief that Neal is useful. He got carried on McDavid's back, and still sucked.
JJ is bad, he's had decent stretches, hell there was even a time, gasp, the pittsburgh media even had to shut up about his play. Given that was before the ill fated decision by the **** coach to play him as the 1LD for some really dumb reason. But hey.
But I make no defense for his bad play. But you know what, Defense is harder to find in this league than forwards. And at league Min JJ might actually still find a role, as shocking as that is, it's the sad state of affairs on the defensive market. But Neal...even at league min I don't think Neal gets a new contract.
He just fades away. Because if you are a forward and you can't play 5v5 they find someone else who can. Who is younger, faster, and can at least skate to speed.

But no matter how you try to flip this, turn this, or whatever. On their current contracts, both of these players are utterly useless. Period. And I'll stand by that.