Jarome Iginla may have a future as an NHL team ambassador.
The Calgary Flames' all-time leading scorer helped his former club acquire Milan Lucic from the Edmonton Oilers in a trade for James Neal on Friday. Lucic chose to waive the no-movement clause in his contract after chatting with Iginla about his potential new home.
"I had a really good talk with Jarome," Lucic said, according to NHL.com. "He told me what a great hockey town Calgary is, how much the people are behind the Flames. It's a fan base that loves seeing effort. They obviously want to win, but regardless, they love the heart-and-soul guys, the guys who give their all, who don't compromise, which I like to think speaks to the way I play."
Iginla played 1,219 games over 16 seasons with the Flames. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins ahead of the 2013 trade deadline, and the 6-foot-1 winger then joined the Boston Bruins on a one-year deal ahead of the 2013-14 campaign.
"Jarome and I got to know each other really well the year we played together in Boston," Lucic said. "We were linemates, we shared a lot of stories, went out to dinner together a lot. … I like to think he knows me pretty well and that's why he took time out of his day to give me a call and help me with my decision. And he did help me make up my mind."
Lucic tallied 59 points on a line with Iginla that year - a mark he hasn't achieved since. It's unlikely the 31-year-old will be able to return to that level of production, but after a career-low six goals and 20 points with the Oilers last season, a fresh start may serve him well.
The deal is worth $1.9 million in Year 1 and $2.3 million in Year 2.
McGinn's arbitration hearing was scheduled for Saturday- the first official day of meetings.
The 25-year-old winger contributed 10 goals and 26 points in 82 games last season and added six points in 15 playoff contests.
It's common for the team and player to reach an agreement before arbitration. Last summer, 40 of 44 players ultimately signed with their respective teams before reaching their hearing dates. This summer, McGinn marks the 13th player to sign before their scheduled meeting.
It may have taken longer than expected, but Ken Holland has made his first major splash as general manager of the Edmonton Oilers.
Holland stunned the hockey world Friday, tradingMilan Lucic and his so-called immovable contract to the archrival Calgary Flames in exchange for James Neal. The Oilers also added a conditional third-rounder in 2020 and are eating 12.5 percent ($750,000 per year) of Lucic's contract.
Lucic and Neal are both locked in for the next four seasons. After salary retention, the Flames are getting Lucic for $5.25 million a year, while the Oilers are essentially paying $6.5 million annually for Neal's services. Both players are coming off seasons they'd like to forget:
Player
GP
G
A
P
ATOI
Lucic
79
6
14
20
13:14
Neal
63
7
12
19
14:57
Let's unravel how this trade will affect each club:
Oilers land legitimate top-6 forward
Neal's short-lived tenure in Calgary did not go as expected. When he signed his five-year deal with the Flames last summer, he was widely expected to play right wing on the top line with Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau. That trio never truly materialized as Elias Lindholm, acquired in a draft-day trade shortly before Neal signed, took that spot and ran with it.
Of course, Neal didn't particularly challenge Lindholm for top-line duties, amassing just five points through the first 25 games of the 2018-19 campaign. As Neal continued to struggle, Flames head coach Bill Peters moved the hulking forward up and down the lineup, with Neal skating on various iterations of the first, second, and third lines. Nothing worked. Eventually, he became a third-line regular.
For Neal, a top-six forward the vast majority of his career, adjusting to life on the third line must have been difficult. He was brought in with both team and player expecting him to play an important role, but from the outside, it appears he was never important. The fact he was a healthy scratch for a must-win Game 5 in the first round of the playoffs - in which the Flames were eliminated from the postseason - made this all too clear.
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
That won't be an issue in Edmonton, as the Oilers severely lack scoring depth on the wing. Neal will almost certainly always line up with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, or - most likely - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Any of those three would mark a massive upgrade over Mark Jankowski, Neal's most frequent center last season. A sniper like Neal needs a playmaking pivot; Jankowski, with 26 assists in 152 career games, doesn't quite fit the description.
Neal's underlying numbers were down last season, but not significantly worse than in years past. It's easier to point to his 5.0 shooting percentage as the primary factor in his disappointing season. Before 2018-19, his career shooting percentage was 12.1, and he'd never had a season with a mark lower than 10.4 percent.
With a full offseason regimen under his belt for the first time since 2016 (remember, he went to back-to-back Stanley Cups with Nashville and Vegas), a motivated Neal, who's still just 31 years old, should easily surpass the 20-goal mark for the 11th time in his career. He's still overpaid, but he'll give the Oilers productivity Lucic simply wasn't going to provide.
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
At this point in his career, Lucic projects as little more than a tough, fourth-line winger who can bang home the rare goal and post positive possession numbers. Not a useless player by any stretch, but his declining skating ability caps his ceiling.
For the Oilers, using $750,000 of cap space and a conditional third-rounder to upgrade a fourth-liner into a much-needed top-six forward is a masterful move by Holland.
Are the Flames in a better spot now?
It'd be egregious to argue the Flames are the winners of this trade. But general manager Brad Treliving may have asked himself: "If Neal gives us last season's production again, will we be in a better position with Lucic taking his spot, creating $500,000 in extra cap space and potentially adding another draft pick in the process?"
The optimistic answer is "maybe," but only time will tell.
Lucic can give the Flames what Neal gave them a year ago, but he'll also add toughness, character, and heart. Is that worth abandoning Neal's upside?
Andy Devlin / National Hockey League / Getty
Neal wasn't a fit in Calgary last season. There wasn't room for him in the club's top six, and he failed to mesh with any of the team's bottom-six forwards. But it's hard to imagine his shooting percentage will remain over 50 percent worse than his career average for a second consecutive campaign.
In a new season, Neal could've conceivably scored at a 20-goal pace and become a contributor for the Flames or, at the very least, raised his own trade value.
Instead, Treliving sold Neal at the lowest point in his career without giving him a chance at redemption in Year 2 of his contract. In return, he acquired a worse player with a similar cap hit who will eventually be much tougher to buy out due to the bonus-heavy structure of his deal. Not ideal for a team in a legitimate Stanley Cup window.
Trouba was traded to the Rangers by the Winnipeg Jets in June in exchange for blue-liner Neal Pionk and a 2019 first-round pick, which the Jets used to select defenseman Ville Heinola.
The 6-foot-3 Trouba is coming off a career year. The 25-year-old tallied 50 points in 82 games while averaging nearly 23 minutes per night.
New York is now $906,000 above the cap ceiling with 22 players under contract and four RFAs unsigned, according to CapFriendly. Teams can exceed the cap by 10 percent during the offseason, so general manager Jeff Gorton has time to get his team back under the upper limit.
After Trouba's entry-level contract with the Jets expired, he held out for more than a month of the 2016-17 season before agreeing to a two-year bridge deal. When that expired, he and the Jets required arbitration to settle on a one-year, $5.5-million pact. The two sides were reportedly $3 million apart beforehand.
He didn't want to sign a long-term deal in Winnipeg because his fiancee is about to start her residency in her quest to become a doctor in the United States. "Her career is just as important as my career," he told the Winnipeg Sun's Ken Wiebe after the trade.
Edmonton will retain some of Lucic's salary and include a conditional draft pick, Friedman adds.
Each player has four years remaining on his current deal. Lucic carries an average annual value of $6 million and Neal has a $5.75-million cap hit per season.
The deal offers fresh starts for two veteran talents coming off career-low campaigns. Neal struggled in his first season with the Flames, recording just seven goals and 19 points in 63 games, while Lucic mustered only six goals and 20 points in 79 games with the Oilers.
