Jan 3: Neal has cleared waivers according to Friedman meaning he can now be sent to the taxi squad or minor leagues.
Jan 2: The St. Louis Blues placed forward James Neal on waivers today, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Neal did have an impressive training camp with the Blues which led to a one-year, league-minimum contract, but he hasn’t retained that same magic in the regular season. The embattled former 40-goal scorer has just two goals and two assists through 17 games this season.
With the Blues continuing to get back to full health, there’s no clear spot for Neal at the NHL level anymore. He’s been surpassed on the depth chart by names like Logan Brown and Klim Kostin, making him expendable.
Teams have until 1 p.m. CT tomorrow to put in a claim for Neal.
Who woulda thought Looch would turn back the clock and make that trade look downright foolish at this point
Well, not AS bad — Lucic has scored a few goals this year, but it’s third line production at best. But Neal, hell — he’s only had one decent scoring season in the last four, and he’s been poor defensively for six, always well in minus even when playing for good teams. He’s just not a NHL player any more. Be interesting to see him in Springfield, though.
23 goal pace is “third line production at best”? I don’t like the flames or Lucic, but he is having a great season so far.
@wreckage – Agreed. He’s definitely feeling a bit rejuvenated, and you can hear it in his interviews. He has had an understandably tough time after the passing of his Dad, so it’s nice to see him getting back to his old self.
To be fair if you take out 5 hole goals he’s only on a 3 goal pace so that’s like 4th line production. But Like that great line from ref mike Leggo “you can’t do that”
Let’s see Lucic sustain that, beyond a (very modest) streak.
Lucic likes playing for Sutter!