Luke Richardson looking to make roster

Has Neiler worn out his welcome or is just a case of trade value right now / this season?

504Heater wrote:

Dawg's Wife wrote:
Nah,

My husbands is NJ, but I'm too lazy to change my to the Sens...BTW this is the year Neil gets traded...I've had him as my favorite Sen for too long now. He'll get traded and force me to look for another fan fav!

Meh...I like Neiler a lot, but if he does get gassed, I'm pretty sure there are guys in the system you'll learn to love.

*COUGH* BASS *COUGH*
Oh, and Regin, Carkner and Yablonski! :D

b33f wrote:Has Neiler worn out his welcome or is just a case of trade value right now / this season?

I can pretty much assure you Neil is not being shopped and will sign an extension before the end of this season.

jamvan wrote:

b33f wrote:Has Neiler worn out his welcome or is just a case of trade value right now / this season?

I can pretty much assure you Neil is not being shopped and will sign an extension before the end of this season.

I don't know how I feel about that. Depends how he plays this year I suppose and how much money he's looking for. If we can get him for under a million for the next couple of years, he'd be great on the fourth line and chipping in on the third line too. It's just, the type of players we have coming up from minor hockey are skilled, smart, agile players (think of Regin, O'Brien, Karlsson, Nikulin, Zubov, Petersson, etc...). And with our top 6 fairly set for the next few years, it just seems like Neil wouldn't be a good fit with these kids on the bottom two lines. Now I can't say for sure, all of them will make it to the big leagues in two years, but most likely some of them will, at the very least, and it would be tough to deny them a roster spot in favor of a forechecker, albeit, one of the better forecheckers in the league (although that was quite debatable last year).

I'm pretty sure Neil will rebound. If not then this should be his last season with us IMO.

[quote="PKC"]

jamvan wrote:

I don't know how I feel about that. Depends how he plays this year I suppose and how much money he's looking for. If we can get him for under a million for the next couple of years, he'd be great on the fourth line and chipping in on the third line too. It's just, the type of players we have coming up from minor hockey are skilled, smart, agile players (think of Regin, O'Brien, Karlsson, Nikulin, Zubov, Petersson, etc...). And with our top 6 fairly set for the next few years, it just seems like Neil wouldn't be a good fit with these kids on the bottom two lines. Now I can't say for sure, all of them will make it to the big leagues in two years, but most likely some of them will, at the very least, and it would be tough to deny them a roster spot in favor of a forechecker, albeit, one of the better forecheckers in the league (although that was quite debatable last year).

I think it will be all about the money. It's not realistic, however, to expect Neil to sign for less than what he's making now ($1.1 mil). My guess is that, if he'll go for a modest raise to, say, $1.5-1.75 mil, we'll see Neil extended for 2-3 yrs before long. He would need to have a better all-around season this year, tho'.

You're right, tho', about the lack of open roster spots for short-term. My guess is that this will be McAmmond's last year with us and time will tell with Neil, but barring any trades/buyouts/waives, many of those bottom six roster spots for next year are spoken for (Kelly, Donovan, Ruutu, Bass, and Foligno/Winchester [presumably one of these guys will crack the top 6?]). Without making a move or two somewhere in the next 12 months, we're going to be awfully hard pressed to make room for Zubov and Nikulin, who are by all accounts the next two guys who will crack the roster at some point.

If Neil has a rebound year then I definitely don't have a problem giving him 1.5M to 1.75M. He's a heart and soul guy from what I hear and is usually good in the locker room and normally is one of the hardest workers on the team. What happened to him last season is very puzzling to me because it was totally out of character from what I've watched, heard and read about him prior to last season.