Hard to see James Neal playing anywhere else
Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Sun: Calgary Flames forward James Neal has four years left at a $5.75 million salary cap hit.
It’s very doubtful Flames ownership and management is interested in a buyout and having Neal on the books for another eight years at a cap hit around $2 million per.
They are likely to not get much trade interest either.
Flames winger Michael Frolik was almost traded at the trade deadline and he could become trade bait this offseason.
The Flames are not deep at right wing.
Flames will need to make some changes, sign their RFAs and decide on goaltending
Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic: The Calgary Flames expected to go further in the playoffs. GM Brad Treliving believes in their core, but the same team likely won’t be back.
“Does our team need to change? I’ll probably be better able to answer that in the next little while – but we won’t bring back the same team.
“Do I believe in the core group here? Yes, I do. I do believe in this group – but we’ve got to take a long hard look at what’s taken place here and determine why. Right now, I don’t have the why for you – but we will get to that in time.”
Treliving needs to sign RFA forward Matthew Tkachuk and he doesn’t foresee any issues. Other RFAs include Sam Bennett, Andrew Mangiapane and David Rittich.
Potential UFAs they could re-sign include Mike Smith, Garnet Hathaway and Oscar Fantenberg.
Smith would like to be back next season, but GM Treliving was non-committal on a Smith-Rittich tandem again next year.
“We’ll sort that out. I believe in David a lot and I go back with Smitty a long way. His contract is up, so we’ll see.”