The Edmonton Oilers are hoping James Neal merely had a blip in the radar and that the 31-year-old sharpshooter still has some productive years ahead of him.
The Oilers acquired Neal from their provincial counterpart Calgary Flames on Friday in exchange for Milan Lucic, a rare divisional trade between the two rivals.
As Bob McKenzie eloquently phrased it on Twitter, the deal was one-for-one, unless Neal scores 10 more goals than Lucic next season -- the Oilers would then have to fork over a 3rd-round-pick.
Courtesy of the Oilers website, Holland explained how he consulted with his management team as well as members of the scouting staff and the rest of the organization to get a feel for what they'd be acquiring in Neal by getting rid of Lucic and his contract.
"My management style is to talk to all my key people," said Holland as per the NHL's official website. "Certainly I talked to [Assistant General Manager] Keith Gretzky and I talked to [VP of Player Development] Scott Howson. I talked to [Director of Pro Scouting] Archie Henderson and obviously, I talked to [Head Coach] Dave Tippett. I spoke with Ken Hitchcock and Bob Nicholson, who then talked to Daryl Katz, our owner.
"We've had lots of internal conversations. I've talked to a lot of people in our organization over the last few weeks and eventually worked our way towards today pulling the trigger on the deal. We're excited about the deal, and I'm hoping James can come in and play great and provide some more offence for us.
The timeline of the deal was a bit trickier. Since Lucic was owed a signing bonus on July 1st, the deal couldn't be made until after Canada Day, otherwise, the Flames would've been on the hook for an extra $4,000,000.
Holland explained that he and Flames GM Brad Treliving had been in discussions over a deal for a number of weeks now, as it wasn't something that just came together over.
"He and I were talking on and off in the lead up to the draft, so middle-to-late June," said Holland. "It heated up here over the last 10 days, then early this week it got cranked up to another level. We had to ask Lucic to waive his No-Movement Clause, which he obviously did, so a few weeks.
Some trades go quick, some trades take time.
Lucic has four years remaining with a cap hit of $6,000,000 per season, while Neal also has four years left at $5,750,000.
The 2018-19 season was a rough one for both players, as they both hit career lows in point totals. Lucic registered just 6 goals and 14 assists in 79 games, while Neal notched 7 goals, 12 assists in 63.
Perhaps a change of scenery will do wonders for one, both or even neither players, but at least they will both get a fresh start and have the chance to prove their doubters wrong that they're still valuable players to their respective teams, even if they aren't statistically what they used to be anymore.
"James has proven in his career that when he gets scoring chances, he can bury the puck. When you look at what we have on our team in those centres, you look at his resume and what he's done in his career. Then I look and see it's been a tough couple years here for Lucic, and I just felt that as we went along over the last few weeks talking to Calgary that if we could find a way to make a deal, it would be great for Milan, great for the Calgary Flames, and hopefully great for the Oilers. You want deals that are good for both teams, so as it pertains to us we needed more offence."
