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James Neal

James Neal Clears Waivers

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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.

Four St. Louis Blues Enter COVID Protocol

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Four St. Louis Blues — forwards Dakota Joshua, James Neal, Ivan Barbashev, and defenseman Robert Bortuzzo — have entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols, per a team release.

There are now five Blues on the protocol list, joining Oskar Sundqvist on the list.

Barbashev’s been a shocking producer to start the year, going on a tear with 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points in 31 games. He’d been averaging over 17 minutes a game, too, so his absence can’t be taken lightly.

Joshua, Neal, and Bortuzzo had combined for just 11 points this year, but it’s just more depth missing from a Blues roster that’s been rocked by absences all year.

Barbashev entered protocol on December 23, so he’s eligible to return three days earlier than the other three players. However, due to an open schedule, all four could come back into action on January 5 against Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, it seems like all four will be unavailable for the Winter Classic on New Years Day.

Blues Place James Neal On Injured Reserve

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For a brief moment, it looked as if the Blues were finally going to have a fully healthy roster at their disposal but that isn’t the case now.  With a few players banged up, they’ve been forced to make a move as the team announced that winger James Neal has been placed on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury.  Center Dakota Joshua has been recalled from AHL Springfield to take Neal’s place on the roster.

Neal had a strong showing with St. Louis on a training camp PTO which led to him receiving a one-year, $750K contract just before the regular season started.  His preseason production hasn’t quite carried over to the regular season, however, as the 34-year-old has managed just two goals and two assists in 17 games while averaging just 11:54 per game, a career-low.

As for Joshua, this is already his third recall of the season.  He has played in six games with the Blues this season, logging just shy of eight minutes per game on the fourth line.  He also has suited up in 11 games with the Thunderbirds, notching a goal and four assists.

What’s notable here is that St. Louis doesn’t have the cap space to add Joshua to the roster; per CapFriendly, they have less than $100K in room right now and Joshua, like Neal, makes $750K, the league minimum.  David Perron and Klim Kostin are the other injured forwards and one of them (or Neal) could be shifted to LTIR to create the cap space for Joshua’s addition but that means they’d be missing ten games and 24 days.  Otherwise, the cap space would need to come from removing a defenseman from the roster; only Scott Perunovich is waiver-exempt.  While this move was needed to get a healthy forward up, it looks as if there will need to be another one coming to make the money work.

Blues Sign James Neal

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It was a successful tryout for winger James Neal in St. Louis as the Blues announced that they’ve inked the veteran to a one-year contract.  The deal is worth the league minimum of $750K.

In his prime, the 34-year-old was one of the more consistent scorers in the NHL, scoring more than 20 goals in ten straight seasons.  However, as he has gotten older, his production has started to slow down.  He had a bounce-back year in 2019-20 in Edmonton with 19 goals in 55 games but he wasn’t able to maintain that same level of production last season.  Instead, he had just five goals and five assists in 29 games while clearing waivers and spending time on the taxi squad.  Rather than keep him on their roster for the remaining two years of his contract, the Oilers decided to buy him out, paying him $1.916MM over each of the next four years for him to go elsewhere.

After being unable to secure a guaranteed contract in free agency, Neal accepted a PTO offer from the Blues who have a need for some cheap role players given their salary cap situation as they’re going to be quite close to the cap ceiling when fully healthy.  He made the most of his exhibition action, scoring four goals in five games to lead the team in that department while sitting one off the league-wide lead in the preseason.

While his best days are behind him now, Neal represents a low-risk pickup for St. Louis.  If he’s able to contribute some offense in the bottom six, they’ll be content with that and if he winds up struggling, they can send him to the minors (he’d have to clear waivers first) and clear the entire cap hit off their books.  Neal sits six goals away from 300 for his NHL career and he should have a chance to get to that milestone at some point this season.

St. Louis Blues Sign James Neal, Michael Frolik To PTOs

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The St. Louis Blues have brought in a ton of veteran experience in one day, signing James Neal and Michael Frolik to professional tryouts. Both players will join the Blues for training camp as they look for NHL contracts.

Neal, 34, was once one of the most consistent goal scorers in the league, posting seasons of at least 21 goals for the first ten years of his career. Things changed in 2018-19 when he signed a five-year, $28.75MM contract with the Calgary Flames, as suddenly his goal scoring dried up and he was pushed further and further down the lineup.

After two up and down years with the Edmonton Oilers, Neal’s contract was bought out in July. He will still earn nearly $2MM from the Oilers in each of the next four years, meaning whatever he was to make on another NHL contract would just be a bonus. Though his overall play has obviously declined, Neal did actually score 24 goals in 84 games for the Oilers over those two seasons, 13 of them coming on the powerplay. If there’s any of that juice left, perhaps the Blues could use him as a sort of specialist to replace some of the scoring that left in the offseason, or that which could still be moved out.

Frolik, 33, is a bit of a different story. He was never a pure goal scorer, far from it in fact as he hasn’t recorded a 20-goal season since his sophomore year in 2009-10. Instead, he grew into a defensively capable support player who could be relied on for somewhere around 40 points a year. That offense disappeared over the last few years though and Frolik was limited almost entirely to the taxi squad for the Montreal Canadiens in 2020-21. In eight games, he failed to record a single point.

It’s hard to believe he’ll ever be an impact player again, but you could certainly do worse than Frolik if you’re looking for depth to keep on hand in case of injury. Having a player like him in camp prepares for that situation, given the Blues don’t have a huge number of young players pushing (or ready) for playing time.

As with any tryout agreement, it’s also important to remember that this does not mean the Blues have exclusive rights to these players. Any NHL team can still sign them if they wish, meaning this is a showcase to the whole league.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Poll: Best Available PTO Candidate

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There were some hints that the PTO market was about to open up. Within the first week of September, the Colorado Avalanche penciled in Artem Anisimov and Jack Johnson and the Pittsburgh Penguins brought in local product Matt Bartkowski. However, with the New Jersey Devils announcing three PTO’s today, including two forwards who played in 45+ games this season in Jimmy Vesey and Mark Jankowski, the floodgates have officially opened on the tryout market. Once the PTO ball starts rolling, it usually only picks up steam. With plenty of talent still available among unsigned unrestricted free agents, this season should be no different. Rather than who will be next to sign, as many names could shortly come off the market (at least temporarily), who would you want your favorite team to bring to camp?

What makes a PTO different than a signing is the lack of commitment. Sure, a low-salary contract that can be buried in the minors is reasonably similar, but even that is a commitment to using up a limited number of roster slots and taking play time from prospects in the AHL. A PTO is merely a training camp invitation to see whether an available player could be a fit for your team. Perhaps it is a veteran who may have gas left in the tank – or may not. Or perhaps it is a young player who has hit a rough patch in his development but just needs a chance to show his upside. It could also be a role player in his prime who just needs a chance to prove he can be useful to the organization.

It’s hard to ignore some of the future Hall of Famers who fit the first description. 44-year-old Zdeno Chara, 41-year-old Patrick Marleau, and 36-year-old Eric Staal each played more games this past season than any other player still available. The question is, can they do it again? Fortunately, a PTO doesn’t require that question to be answered without getting an early look. All three of Chara, Marleau, and Staal have seemingly done more than enough in their respective careers to earn a contract if they want one, but after each had a down year entering a tight, flat-cap market, could they settle for a PTO? Travis Zajac may not be headed for the Hall, but the respected veteran is coming off of a better year than anyone else still unsigned and was expected to command a contract. Could he too end up on a tryout?

Other veterans who might be more likely to take a tryout to extend their careers could include Jason Demers, Bobby Ryan, James Neal, Frans Nielsen, or Devan Dubnyk. Demers and Dubnyk are both arguably the best players still available at their respective position, but that isn’t saying much for an early-September market. It still may not hurt for a team to try to lock up that security on a PTO in case depth is needed. Ryan was playing very well with the Red Wings last season before his season was derailed by injury. At 34, coming back from a long-term ailment could be difficult, but a PTO would allow teams to check on his health. Neal and Nielsen have fallen far from their spots as elite NHLers in the past few years, but could they still have a resurgence left?

Among young players looking for another chance is Alex Galchenyuk, 27, who had the makings of a breakout season brewing after a move to the Toronto Maple Leafs last season and could be ready to build on that momentum. Galchenyuk can be a tough system fit, but a PTO would allow for a team to test his abilities with their personnel. At just 25, Michael Dal Colle may actually be the best young hidden gem among unsigned players. In fact, it is surprising to 2014 top-five pick still available, especially given that he showed signs of improvement in 2019-20 before the Islanders’ depth forced him to take a back seat role last season. Dal Colle could be worth the look, but could a team glean enough in camp without much NHL experience to rely upon as supporting evidence. The same could be said for Frederik Gauthier. One of the biggest forwards in the NHL and good defensive forward, Gauthier’s played sparingly last season within the Coyotes organization and was limited exclusively to fourth line minutes prior in Toronto. Could a brief training camp appearance prove to a team that he is not one-dimensional?

As for those players in their prime who don’t have to prove that they can play in the NHL or can still play in the NHL, it is more about showing that they possess the tools to fill a specific role for a team. Those looking for some stability and minutes on the blue line should show interest in Sami Vatanen, Erik Gustafsson, or Ben Hutton, who have both shown that they can still play. However, are they a better option than what most teams already have on their bottom pair or waiting for opportunity in the AHL? Up front, a team in need of skill could eye Nikita Gusev or Alex Chiasson while those seeking defense have options such as Colton Sceviour and Tobias Rieder. Like the defensemen, all of these forwards surely could play in the NHL this season, but are they superior options to what teams already have? And can a PTO prove otherwise?

There are strengths and weaknesses to all of these players, as well as to what they would be able to prove on a training camp tryout. At the end of the day, at this point in the season value is subjective based on what each team feels could be an area of need in the coming season and who they feel could prove themselves worthy of a contract with just a short PTO. So what say you? Who would you most like to see your favorite team bring in on a PTO?

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Buffalo Sabres Limited By Salary Cap Floor

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The Buffalo Sabres will be over the NHL’s salary cap floor by the start of the season, that much is obvious. While CapFriendly currently has the club sitting $2.3MM below the $60.2MM benchmark, that is with a 22-man roster that does not include unsigned RFA defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. While the 2018 first overall pick is not quite yet proven himself worthy of the considerable long-term deals signed by other top defenseman this off-season, he will surely make more than $2.3MM AAV on his next contract.

Yet, that does not end the Sabres’ battle with the cap floor. Just because they begin the season over the floor, does not mean that they will remain as such all season – or at least not if they wish to have flexibility with their transactions. Buffalo is again expected to be among the NHL’s worst teams this season and will be open to selling current members of the roster. Of course, Jack Eichel is the biggest name who could be available. However, at $10MM AAV it has been brought up numerous times that an Eichel trade is not as easy as it may seem. A team may offer a plethora of top picks, prospects, and entry-level players, but the Sabres would not be able to make that deal alone, as it would leave the team well below the salary cap floor regardless of Dahlin’s contract. Buffalo would have to acquire a nearly equal amount of salary back in the deal or else be prepared to quickly turn and add that salary in another deal. As a rebuilding team, the Sabres also won’t eager to add high-priced veterans who serve little purpose to a team with no title hopes. It makes an already difficult situation with Eichel all that much more tricky.

Even if Eichel begins the season with Buffalo, which seems increasingly likely, and even plays out the year with the team, the cap floor will still come into play. As the trade deadline approaches, the Sabres want to be in position to take full advantage of their valuable trade assets. The team has four forwards, four defensemen, and two goalies who are impending UFA’s and whose expiring contracts would be worth far more to another team. Colin Miller ($3.875MM), Will Butcher ($2.823MM), Cody Eakin ($2.25MM) and Vinnie Hinostroza ($1.05MM) stand out as potentially popular trade candidates at the deadline. Depending on Dahlin’s contract, could they move Hinostroza or maybe even Eakin or Butcher without going below the floor? Probably. But Miller? Or multiple moves? Likely not. The deadline is also not a place that is likely to offer even salary swaps.

If GM Kevyn Adams and the Sabres want to enter the 2021-22 season with the confidence that they can make any move they want without limitation, they need to find a way to sensibly add salary to the roster. For a rebuilding team, it may be difficult to think about adding salary to a team that won’t contend, but it would be a short-term sacrifice to ensure their long-term plans are not affected. The team could explore the trade market for a veteran or two that can help to develop the young roster or perhaps a young, but overpaid reclamation project. Or maybe they could entertain adding a legitimate starting goalie. They could also explore the free agent market which, even late in the summer, still has some attractive names available. With the Sabres pegged to give roster spots to minimum-salary fourth-liners like Drake Caggiula and John Hayden, it might make more sense to give those slots and more importantly more salary to a high-upside project like Ryan Donato, Alex Galchenyuk, or Nikita Gusev or a veteran leader like Tyler Bozak, James Neal, or Jason Demers. 

The Sabres have plenty of options to solve their salary cap floor conundrum beyond just re-signing Dahlin. However, those options could disappear if they don’t act quickly, and with it their transactional flexibility this season.

Free Agent Profile: James Neal

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Things have fallen sharply for veteran forward James Neal since his storybook season with the inaugural Vegas Golden Knights. After scoring 25 goals and 44 points in 2017-18 to mark his 10th consecutive season of scoring 20 or more goals, Neal signed a now-infamous five-year, $28.75MM deal with the Calgary Flames on the second day of free agency in 2018. He only lasted one season in Calgary on that contract, however, scoring just seven goals and 19 points, sometimes serving as a healthy scratch.

But many thought redemption was in order for Neal when a swap with the Edmonton Oilers sent him to Northern Alberta in exchange for Milan Lucic. With the chance for Neal to play with one or both of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, 20 goals or more was again the expectation for the consistently gifted scorer. Neal didn’t quite hit the mark, but would’ve if the season hadn’t been cut short due to COVID-19 – his bounce-back season in Edmonton saw him score 19 goals and 31 points in 55 games, numbers reminiscent of his time in Vegas.

However, Neal’s decline accelerated this season, and his numbers once again plummeted to unacceptable depths for his $5.75MM cap hit. He’s now a free agent after being bought out by the Oilers on July 27th, a buyout that’ll see Neal cost them $1.917MM against the cap for the next four seasons. 2020-21 was Neal’s roughest season yet, actually, spending almost half of the 56-game season sitting in the press box. His shooting percentage and time on ice fell sharply as Neal’s lack of strong play-driving cost him a significant role at even strength.

Neal still carries veteran leadership and name recognition. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s played in 11 straight playoffs, totaling 58 points in 110 games over that timeframe. It remains to be seen whether teams will value that experience enough to extend Neal a contract offer.

Stats

2020-21: 29 GP, 5-5-10, -2 rating, 11 PIMS, 51 shots, 49.3% CF, 12:06 ATOI
Career: 850 GP, 294-261-555, +8 rating, 581 PIMS, 2,483 shots, 53.2% CF, 17:22 ATOI

Potential Suitors

The good news here for James Neal is that there are still plenty of teams looking to add affordable, experienced depth, especially on the wings. There are still a few options that make sense for the 33-year-old Ontario-born winger.

The Carolina Hurricanes come to mind immediately as a team that’s still looking to fill out their forward group, especially their depth in the bottom-six. Neal fits well in this role for them, especially considering the limited scoring upside of some current options in Jordan Martinook, Steven Lorentz, and Stefan Noesen. If paired with a strong play-driver and playmaker like Jordan Staal, Neal’s scoring touch could give a boost to Carolina’s third line.

If Neal wants to chase a Stanley Cup, and if the interest is mutual, the Colorado Avalanche also make a decent amount of sense. For a team that lost both Brandon Saad and Joonas Donskoi this offseason, his double-digit scoring upside is more palatable than that of someone like Darren Helm’s or Stefan Matteau’s. The New Jersey Devils also come to mind as a squad who could still use some additional veteran presence to help propel a potential playoff push this season.

Projected Contract

Neal was not included on our Top 50 UFA list, as he hadn’t been bought out at the time of publishing. But it’s still hard to imagine Neal receiving anything more than the $1MM range on a one-year contract, considering he hasn’t been inked to a deal already. Neal finds himself in a similar situation to that of Jason Spezza a few years back — a once consistent talent who’d seen his numbers drop in recent seasons. Spezza took a league-minimum $700,000 (at the time) contract to stay in the league, and it’s a strong possibility Neal will have to do the same.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Edmonton Oilers To Buy Out James Neal

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The Edmonton Oilers have placed James Neal on unconditional waivers today for the purpose of a buyout. He joins Martin Jones and Braden Holtby as three players bought out just as the first window expires. The Oilers will be on the hook for four seasons of cap penalties after the buyout is executed. The cap hits will be as follows:

  • 2021-22: $1,916,667
  • 2022-23: $1,916,667
  • 2023-24: $1,916,667
  • 2024-25: $1,916,667

Neal, 33, was once one of the most consistent goal-scorers in the NHL, recording ten straight seasons of at least 21 goals to start his career. He even reached 19 during the 2019-20 season with Edmonton, though 12 of them were on the powerplay and 14 came in the first 26 games of the season. Neal managed just five goals and ten points in 29 games this year for the Oilers, essentially losing his roster spot to other, cheaper forwards. The buyout today only confirms that, as the team moves in another direction.

Edmonton decided not to buy out Mikko Koskinen, but the Neal transaction will open up nearly $4MM in cap space that they can use moving forward. With Adam Larsson on to Seattle, the team is in dire need of a right-shot defenseman to play in the top-four, along with several forwards to help take some of the pressure off Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Neal was no longer going to be able to fill that role, meaning he had to go one way or another.

Still, it’s going to be tough looking down at a $1.9MM cap hit three years from now, when the cap still might not have increased at all and the Oilers are nearing the end of the contracts with their two stars. It was a necessary move to compete in the short-term, but having Neal on the books for four years is going to be painful.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Snapshots: Sharks, Killorn, Neal, Chiasson

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With the pre-expansion trade freeze now just a week away, trade talk will be picking up around the league.  Kevin Kurz of The Athletic notes (subscription link) that the Sharks are a team that is active in those discussions with winger Kevin Labanc, defenseman Radim Simek, and center Dylan Gambrell at the forefront of those discussions.  Labanc underwhelmed in the first season of a four-year, $18.9MM deal with 12 goals in 55 games, Simek is on the expensive side for a third-pairing defenseman with a $2.25MM price tag, while Gambrell, a pending RFA, didn’t produce much this season – just 12 points in 49 games despite averaging over 16 minutes a game.  Kurz adds that San Jose’s preference is to make a player for player swap; speculatively speaking, any deal involving the first two players would be seeking to bring in a cheaper replacement to give them some more financial flexibility.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • Lightning winger Alex Killorn should be fully recovered for training camp, relays Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times. The veteran fractured his fibula blocking a point shot in the opening game of the Stanley Cup Final and has already undergone surgery.  While he was hoping to get back into the lineup later in the series had it gone that far, the recovery time for this injury is closer to three to four weeks.
  • After Edmonton was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, Oilers GM Ken Holland strongly suggested a buyout or two was in the cards for his roster. However, his agent Kent Morris told Postmedia’s Jim Matheson that he hasn’t received a notification from the team yet about veteran winger James Neal heading down that path.  A buyout of the final two years remaining on the contract for the 33-year-old is likely with Neal notching just five goals and five assists in 29 games this season but such a move may not come until after expansion.
  • Morris also spoke about another Oilers client, telling Matheson in that same column that pending UFA winger Alex Chiasson would like to stay and that the team hasn’t yet shut a door on his return. Having said that, it seems likely that they’ll look at their options in free agency before potentially circling back to the 30-year-old who has managed just 20 goals over the last two seasons combined after scoring 22 times in his first season with the team.

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