FueltheFlames1075

That’s a very good point. I figured it was way off.

I was thinking the same thing. What about the following trade? Brodie Frolik Jankowski 3rd round pick for Laine Beaulieu Is this an overpayment or not enough?

What’s the difference between having Lucic or Neal on the team though? Both will/would have played in the bottom 6, and Lucic will be the better fit there. Either way they were likely overpaying a bad contract.

This logic doesn’t make sense. I think we all can agree that Neal wasn’t going to play top 6 this year, in Calgary. He didn’t fit in the bottom 6 with his style, so we had no where to play him. So instead of paying Neal $5.75M to play in a bottom 6 role that he wouldn’t fit in, we pay Lucic $5.25M to play a bottom 6 role that he will fit in to. I agree it’s too much money to pay a bottom 6 guy, but we were going to be doing it either way. At least we have a better fit this way, and for $500,000 cheaper.

The only thing to consider, and the big question in this trade is, is James Neal a declining player as well, or was last year just a blip? Why is everyone so quick to assume that Neal just had an off year and give him credit that he’ll bounce back, while at the same time not giving Lucic the same benefit of the doubt? Maybe his last couple of years truly are a result of playing on a terrible Oilers team, and not being a good fit with their other players? We’re so quick to discount Lucic, when Neal really does carry the same risks.

Thanks for clarifying.

The other angle for the Aho contract is that it walks him right into UFA, does it not? How much AAV did he give up in order to get that, as well? When thinking about Tkachuk and other RFA’s, unless you’re planning on giving them the same opportunity, you should plan on the AAV to be higher than Aho’s.

Or maybe the blame lays with him for not pushing to make them give him games.

So who makes out better here? Calgary or Edmonton?

I have heard that Mike Smith is headed to the Oilers.

That would be a pretty major accomplishment, considering that Stone is no longer in Ottawa.

Wow, this is truly a shock. I am not one of the huge posters here, however I am always on and reading others opinions. FF52 was definitely a great poster and you could tell that he was a great person as well. Rest in peace Larry, and hopefully we all can carry on his legacy on here, in some way.

The more I watch Calgary lately the more I think that they need to add one more top end forward, like Stone. Plus I believe that they should go after Howard or another goalie, and carry three goalies or trade Smith.

Everyone needs to ignore me and ban me from the message boards. I didn't mean to raise everyone's blood pressure for an hour or so, however I was able to go back and listen to the interview finally. He said what I said he did, with one big difference. He said the word "could" instead of "will". I could have sworn he said "will". Go easy on me.

I am taking it with a grain of salt too, however this was on a Saskatchewan sports show, that was focusing on CFL free agency. Not exactly the high traffic time and place to troll Flames fans.