Proposed player for player trade involving Calgary's James Neal.

Details inside.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Proposed player for player trade involving Calgary's James Neal.
Kevin Sullivan/SCNG/Zuma

The Calgary Flames saw their season come to a disappointing end in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs after they had such a strong performance during the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season. The Flames finished with the strongest record in the entire Western Conference but they were dispatched with relative ease in the playoffs with the Colorado Avalanche, a team that had to fight for a playoff spot up until the very end of the season, losing in just 5 games in their first round series. 

Given the expectations that their performance in the regular season set for them in the playoffs there is almost no question that the Calgary Flames are going to look for one ways to shake up their roster before they return for the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season. One of the biggest sore spots on the Flames roster at this time is the atrocious looking contract that the organization gave to then free agent forward James Neal in the summer of 2018.

Neal is in the first year of a 5 year contract worth a whopping $28.75 million over that term, a deal that works out to an average annual value of $5.75 million per season. That is of course a significant cap hit for the Flames, which would have been fine if they had gotten the player they were expecting but Neal's performance this season has done nothing but send up alarm bells in Calgary. Neal would appear in 63 regular season games for the Flames and over that stretch he recorded 7 goals and 12 assists for a total of 19 points on the season. When you compare that to the 25 goals and 19 assists for 44 points he picked up for the Golden Knights in their inaugural season, it looks like the Flames gambled on Neal and exactly the wrong time.

For the very same reason that Neal has become a big problem for the Flames he will be a very difficult player to move on the trade market, although one NHL writer has proposed a trade that honestly could make a lot of sense for both of the organizations that would hypothetically be involved. In a recent article for The Hockey News Brian Costello suggested that Neal could be moved to the Sabres for a similar player having similar struggles.

From Costello:

Maybe the best recourse is a bad-contract-for-bad-contract trade. Neal to Buffalo for Kyle Okposo (four years left at $6 million)? That might help both players and both teams.

The 31 year old Kyle Okposo suffered a similar dip in form this season and is coming off some rather serious medical issues in recent years as well that have left question about his future. Like Neal, Okposo has 4 years remaining on his deal and although he does count for an additional $250,000 against the cap each season, a change of scenery after years of losing in Buffalo could be just what the doctor ordered. As for the Sabres getting a gritty and no nonsense veteran like Neal could help them deal with the issue they have been having of players quitting on their team in recent season.

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