Among recent trades in the NHL, it looked like one of the biggest wins: James Neal and Matt Niskanen coming over from Dallas for Alex Goligoski back in February 2011.
And now the Pens have flipped their sniper to Nashville.
How does it work out that an NHL first-team all-star from the 2011-12 season is on the move two seasons later?
Neal is a talent and seemed to be a fit in Pittsburgh, but ultimately performance matters. Not personal performance, mind you, because Neal has been there — but a team’s finish.
Here’s a right winger who, through the last three seasons and with adjustments for time lost to injury and labour strife, is an established 40-goal scorer. He would seem to be a commodity that you wouldn’t put on the market.
But as mentioned in a blog entry yesterday, Neal fell out of favour in Dallas and had a significant run-in with management there, leading to his hand-off to Pittsburgh. Once stained, forever so.
Neal looked like a game-changer when he came to Pittsburgh but fell short. Impressive personal statistics, and yet the general feeling was that he was a player who contributed not to peak performance but malaise.
Truth is, once moved like Neal was in Dallas, a player is the first looked at in a room as a problem rather than a solution. Certainly issues with on-ice discipline and suspensions contributed to that. With First All-Star Team status and with Evgeni Malkin as a centreman, Neal always left you wanting more. In the Penguins’ last three playoff runs, all disappointing, Neal never impressed you as a game-changer so much as one of the rank and file.
New GM Jim Rutherford was free to make a deal with Neal because Neal’s acquisition didn’t have his fingerprints on it. And by dealing Neal to Nashville, Pittsburgh management is saying that this was an experiment that failed. At this point, Neal still commanded value in the marketplace that he might not a year or two from this point.
And so Neal and his contract (which has four years at $5 million a year hanging on it), moves on to Nashville for Patric Hornqvist, a 25-goal winger and seemingly a big step down in talent, and RFA Nick Spalding. The money would seem an approximate wash, so what goes on? Clearly the chemistry with Neal in the Pens’ room was lacking.
If Sidney Crosby were a big Neal fan, would this deal have been made?
Yeah, we know.