Neal hasn't been advised Oilers plan to buy him out
While the NHL'S buyout window opens Friday following Tampa Bay's Stanley Cup win over Montreal, Edmonton Oilers winger James Neal has yet to be told his bang for the buck isn't loud enough to justify his spot on the team's pecking order.
“They haven't expressed anything yet,” said agent Pat Morris.
Morris knows the score, though. He's also Corey Perry's agent, so he's been down the buyout road before when the winger was in Anaheim and the Ducks couldn't afford the former Hart Trophy winner, which has led Perry to productive stops in Dallas and Montreal, featuring two consecutive trips to the final.
As Morris says about teams: “They have to balance the chequebook.”
But Oilers general manager Ken Holland hasn't told Morris that Neal is being bought out, although it's likely after Holland said in May: “It's very possible,” when asked about buyouts in general terms.
He definitely needs to save money to go after free-agent
Zach Hyman, and if he buys out Neal with his $5.75 million cap hit for two more years, the Oilers will save $3.8 million this upcoming season and in 2022-23.
They would have him on the books as dead money totalling $1.92 million until 2024-25. But Holland has also been part of the buyout rodeo here in 2019, when he went that route with Andrej Sekera, and they have two more years at $1.5 million in dead cap money with the current Dallas defenceman.
Teams can buy out players until July 27, the day before the free-agent doors swing open, so Holland doesn't have to make a firm decision on Neal tomorrow. But odds are he will fairly soon. As Morris admits, his player “had hiccups to his season and he's got two years left.”
Neal is no longer a top-six player. He's a fourth-line player now. He's still got hands, but his feet are problematic. Buying out Neal gives the Oilers some contract space. These are the buyout facts.
Neal had a fantastic first month of the 2019-20 season after his trade for Milan Lucic, piling up 11 goals on 42 shots, with eight goals coming on the power play. He scored six goals in the first three Oilers games, something nobody else ever did. Not Wayne Gretzky, not Jari Kurri.
Neal broke his foot later in that season, kept playing, and finished with 19 goals. His work in the four-game playoff ouster by Chicago in the bubble here was one of the few Oilers bright spots on a big-boy line with Alex Chiasson and Jujhar Khaira.
This season, Neal got
COVID -19 before coming to camp in January, which set him back. Then he had further issues with the virus. He played nine games, then was on waivers Feb. 13 to get him onto the taxi squad.
He only played 29 of the team's 56 regular-season games and had five goals and 10 points. If he was making $750,000 to $1 million and in a bottom-six role, like Devin Shore or Tyler Ennis, fine. But Neal has become a fourthline player here with some first power-play unit time.
If bought out, Pittsburgh might be a possibility, as Neal played there before.
You might see Florida buy out defenceman Keith Yandle, the resident iron man who has played 922 straight games, second to Doug Jarvis's 964. Buyouts are also possible with San Jose goalie Martin Jones and Dallas netminder Ben Bishop, who missed the past season recovering from a torn meniscus.
Last year, goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who may be going to the Hall of Fame, and winger Bobby Ryan were bought out by the
New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators, respectively. So was Justin Abdelkader in Detroit, and Kyle Turris in Nashville, with Turris winding up here.
Neal, who turns 34 in September, has 294 career goals and has long been a streaky scorer. He has nine career hat-tricks, in the top 10 among active players in three-goal games.