it is a safe and smart move. He has a huge contract for what you are getting and if a team wants to claim him it is a big contract off the Oilers hands. So smart move!

Who is the winner of the trade now oilers fans?

/ \ / \
-----______-----
\ / \ /

Still Edmonton... Aha he's not going to stay on waivers. He's still the better player overall.. plus he can be bought out... Cement foot/head can't.. Neal will still probably end up putting up twice as many points by the end of the season...

So is the Oilers' plan just to put every forward on waivers and hope someone gets picked up eventually? We've seen Neal, Ennis, Chiasson, Khaira...

Give me a break. It's for roster flexibility. The only reason Calgary hasn't done the same with Looch is because he has a NMC

In the two seasons Neal has 8 more points.. that’s it. It a narrow gap for how much of a better player Oilers fans claim Neal is. Both play power play, Lucic fits in the Calgary room way better and Neal fits the Oilers system better. No one wins this trade, no one really loses it either, the 3rd round pick is hilarious and I’ll take that as a small victory.

Who has twice the points rn and if you pay any attention to advanced analytics it’s not even close the flames easily won the trade, lucic lead to the flames to the playoffs last year and the oilers didn’t even make the playoffs last year.

Lucic can not be bought out and that contract will hurt the flames

Lucic can not be bought out and that contract will hurt the flames... Your exaggerating immensely, Lucic did not carry them to the playoffs and either way did they win the cup? Ready for that rebuild yet? Think Johnny hockey will finally get traded? Bennet the bust? How much longer do you think your cap has? That Markstrom contract is ugly.

How much longer until mcdavid and draistaitl demand trades and at least bennett is still in the nhl unlike yakupov and remember the hall trade? Markstrom is a top 5 goalie so the contract is pretty good, gio is old but we have plenty of replacements so it doesn’t really matter. Oilers didn’t even make the playoffs when they had the two top score a that’s just sad. if you think Johnny hockey is getting traded you are just an idiot. Remember when you took puljujarvi over chucky? How many first overall picks do you need to make the playoffs the flames have had 0 and made it, oilers have had like 5 and missed the playoffs.

..

No need to. You’re trying to use something that won’t happen as a negative, that’s just not how it works. Gio off the books by then, Tkachuk is the big contracts replacing that, Gaudreau likely walks for Philly, D are all on good contracts, goalie is locked down, players coming from Stockton will be on ELC and producing. There’s no need for a buyout, not part of the argument.

Not that much better. Plus you guys are basically paying him 6.5 if you include the .75 retained on Looch. That’s 1.25 more than Lucic. They’re both irrelevant anchors, so lower cap hit wins



Ready for that rebuild? Calgary is significantly better than Edmonton, you guys should be the ones rebuilding. When is McD asking out? Our miss is still an effective NHLer, how’s Yakupov doing? Puljujarvi? Top 5 goalie in the league. His contract is a steal

I guess I agree with the statement no one really wins the trade.. but the Neal contract is easier to buy out and will save them almost 4 M. So there's that.

But come on... since the trade Neal 0.53 pts/G and Lucic 0.32 pts/G... Not really that close. And Neal was a big part of the Oilers historically good Powerplay last year. So if you're going to use intangibles to make your argument, then your argument really doesn't have any merit.

There is no reason to buyout Lucic. Giordano, likely Gaudreau Derek Ryan all come off the books with Tkachuk needing a contract. Plenty of room, D are all on good contracts, goalie is locked in. The buyout argument doesn’t apply, there’s just no need for it.

Whatever mental gymnastics you need to do to be happy with the deal you go ahead that’s fine.

There's no reason to because it's buyout proof. There's really no savings on it.
Mental gymnastics? What are you talking about? I literally just posted a basic stat for determining production by a players and Neal is ahead by a large margin. Can you provide a counter point that isn't you just trying to avoid a rational argument?

Buyout proof or not, it’s very simply just not necessary for the duration of his deal.

https://thewincolumn.ca/2021/02/11/milan-lucic-is-playing-much-better-than-james-neal-this-season/

Dig a little deeper than one stat. I think the guys who wrote this blog are absolute idiots but numbers don’t have opinions they’re just fact.

And that's fine. The Oilers have plenty of cap room with Neal as well, so we can put that argument to bed.

The point is... If we are looking at the big picture, as in who WON the trade, you need to look at the entire sample. Obviously Lucic is having a better start to the season. But you think you can conclude from that that Cgy won the trade? Are those numbers you posted sustainable? If Lucic does sustain that I'll be the first one to say I'm wrong, but you cannot expect him to keep it up. On the flip side, Neal was coming off having Covid and wasn't able to be at camp. And missed games to start because of it. Also, he hasn't even been bad so I don't understand this notion that Neal is all of a sudden such a detriment to the roster. He was put on waivers because Edmonton is carrying 9 D on the active roster. They have put many of their bottom 6 on waivers so they can move guys in and out much easier.

If you want to take a 13 game sample size and crown your team then you can. But numbers tend to revert back to the norm. And the norm is that Neal has been the better player since the trade.

The jury is still out on that one puljujarvi is a force.

Edmonton gets a goalie and a 3C this summer and they are a real contender. Puljujarvi is actually playing very well.

😂😂😂😂 are you saying you think puljujarvi with his 5 points in 15 games come even remotely close to chucky

He has been a different player the last 5 games.

Yes I know, I disagree that you’ll be a contender though. I just wanted to give that guy a few shots for saying stupid things just to anger my fellow Flames fan

Still the oilers lol.