People on this board seem to be real down James Neal. I am not.
A lot of people say that Neal was only a 40 goal scorer because he had a generational talent dishing him the puck and making the plays for him. They knock him for not being able to create his own plays and is a one trick perimeter shooting pony, something that doesn't work come play off hockey. And the proof of that is in the pudding. Just look at Neal's playoff numbers. He also had a questionable attitude and took a lot of unwarranted penalties.
Here is my rebuttal to all that: average players do not score 30 or near 30 on a consistency bases, and they most certainly do not score 40. JN's prowess as a sniper cannot be denied and to say he won't score 30 again without Geno or someone near his talent level is irresponsible. He'll be able to score 30 with several of the Cs that the Preds have to offer him and he'll continue to be a PP mastermind. Someone with that skill set is valuable no matter what. Granted, that's more valuable to a team that has a dearth at scoring like the Preds and not so much to a team like the Pens.
However, consider this: Neal is 26. People forget how young this guy is, and very minor tweaks to his game make him exponentially better. If he got some discipline to him, which he certainly could (he's not too old to change), and eliminated some boneheaded penalties it would alleviate half the problem right there. JN's penalties lead to plenty of big time melt downs or icing on the cake PPGs in the past. Now lets take it one step further and imagine if Neal could figure out how to channel his aggression into something more useful than cheap shots and we're dealing with a very skilled player that has a major killer instinct. That though terrifies me.
Another tweak would be if he learned to use his superb size just a bit. Like literally at all. He doesn't need to become a power forward, but if he learned how to bang around the dirty areas just every once in a while he'd become all the more dangerous and his numbers during the playoffs would soar. To use video game terms (an underrated advanced metric), if he could use his size just a bit, I bet that would be the difference between an 88 overall and a 90/91 in NHL 14.
Sure, those are big ifs, but like I said before, Neal is still quite young, and how much of Neal's discipline issues and refusal to fix a broken playing style can be blamed on Neal, and how much is Dan Bylsma's fault? A man that had a reputation of allowing players to do whatever their hearts desired. I would have liked to see if Neal would have developed any more under a new coach with a fresh approach who was willing to take a no-nonsense mentality with the players. Will Johnston be that guy? I guess we'll see, but unfortunately not with Neal.
I agree with the overall consensus that Neal was a luxury on Malkin's line, and its better to have a trashman on Geno's line in order to facilitate Malkin taking over more rather than deferring. However, I absolutely think Sid needs a true sniper since his passing is one of his greatest offensive assets and is what has made Duper and Kunitz so good the past few years. Would have loved to try out Neal on Sid's wing more often, but God forbid Dupuis gets moved down. As a new mind, Johnson may have been willing to make that happen, but once again we will never know.
- Victoro311
Just a ton of really good points here. Neal is going to score goals in NSH. I have no doubt about it. Neal scored a lot of PP goals in Pittsburgh despite never being a focal point of the power play. In Nashville, Neal won't have to play the left side of the ice, mitigating his effectiveness. He'll be able to set up shop and wait for pucks from the right dot, and he'll get plenty of chances because of the presence of Weber and his huge shot.
I would have liked to see them hold onto Neal for one more year, to see what Johnston could do with him. I think Hornqvist might be a better fit, but I also think Neal could have possibly worked through his perceived "issues" via a new coach and GM.
I also agree that it was a shame that we never go to see much of Crosby and Neal together 5 on 5.
