POLL: Chris Neil - Your call

What about if he's offered a contract like Murder suggested - 1.75 X 3? Surely he wouldn't say no to that.

504Heater wrote:What about if he's offered a contract like Murder suggested - 1.75 X 3? Surely he wouldn't say no to that.

Done and Done of course!!! I'll take that. I still don't think he'll do it though...I could be wrong. We shall see when the day comes. Or we'll see when he's traded at the deadline and another team locks him up for $2 per...blah...I can't imagine anyone would be that dumb...but there are quite a few dummies out there..

SensGirl11 wrote:Done and Done of course!!! I'll take that. I still don't think he'll do it though...I could be wrong. We shall see when the day comes. Or we'll see when he's traded at the deadline and another team locks him up for $2 per...blah...I can't imagine anyone would be that dumb...but there are quite a few dummies out there..

Maybe I'm just getting cheaper as I get older, but I hate the ring of 1.75. Sign for 1.5 for ****'s sake.

But if the Sens are willing to cough up 1.75, then I guarantee Neil signs.

EDIT: I still don't believe there's a chance that they will offer that much though.

I think you're right. I don't think they offer him that at all. Take 1.5 or go, nothing else we can do, sorry.

504Heater wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:

504Heater wrote:I wouldn't re-sign him for 1.75. I wouldn't budge from the 1.5. Just my opinion, but having Kelly and Neil for a combined (almost) 4 million is suicide.

Would you pay $2.5M for Trent Hunter? You would have last year at the deadline I remember correctly.

Oh yeah! Maybe even 3. That boy has skillz though.

I am not going to do a gay stat comparison thing but if you are saying $3M, you are saying he is twice the player Neil is. I do not agree.

I think they are somewhat the same player. IMO Hunter gets more minutes therefore may lead some to believe he is a better player but despite our record I would suggest out talent pool at forward is vastly deeper than it is on the island. When you move from 3rd line minutes to 2nd line minutes the stats go up dramatically. Plus Neil would eat him up if they throw off the flippers. I would not put him that far ahead of Neiler personally.

SensGirl11 wrote:I think you're right. I don't think they offer him that at all. Take 1.5 or go, nothing else we can do, sorry.

I hope you are wrong personally. I honestly think we would live to regret that one. Nothing like Chara but similar. Chara was the giant crease clearing guy who could play at both ends and beat anyone senseless when required. That is one of a kind. Neil is a guy who could play in this league even if they eliminated fighting yet he does that exceedingly well also. Not unique but very rare.

MurderOnIce wrote:
I am not going to do a gay stat comparison thing but if you are saying $3M, you are saying he is twice the player Neil is. I do not agree.

I think they are somewhat the same player. IMO Hunter gets more minutes therefore may lead some to believe he is a better player but despite our record I would suggest out talent pool at forward is vastly deeper than it is on the island. When you move from 3rd line minutes to 2nd line minutes the stats go up dramatically. Plus Neil would eat him up if they throw off the flippers. I would not put him that far ahead of Neiler personally.

It's hard to qualify. I like Hunter's skill set a lot more than I like Hunter's, but I agree with you that he should be retained (hopefully at 1.5 though :D)

504Heater wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:
I am not going to do a gay stat comparison thing but if you are saying $3M, you are saying he is twice the player Neil is. I do not agree.

I think they are somewhat the same player. IMO Hunter gets more minutes therefore may lead some to believe he is a better player but despite our record I would suggest out talent pool at forward is vastly deeper than it is on the island. When you move from 3rd line minutes to 2nd line minutes the stats go up dramatically. Plus Neil would eat him up if they throw off the flippers. I would not put him that far ahead of Neiler personally.

It's hard to qualify. I like Hunter's skill set a lot more than I like Hunter's, but I agree with you that he should be retained (hopefully at 1.5 though :D)

At the end of the day if you were the GM and I was Neil's agent we'd work it out. i think the same can be said for the real guys. It should work.

MurderOnIce wrote:
At the end of the day if you were the GM and I was Neil's agent we'd work it out. i think the same can be said for the real guys. It should work.

I agree 100% - and I think that's the most pertinent post yet. If Neil really wants to be a Sen and the Sens really want Neil, there will be a middle ground (probably 1.6 X 4) that they can come to an agreement in. Maybe an extra year, maybe an extra 100K, but they'll work it out.

We'll have to sweat it out a little, but I hope it happens.

I have to say that I used to really like Neil, but the past two years (ever since he became a daddy, pretty much, except for the first game after his daughter was born) he's not been very consistent. Remember last year when he disappeared on the road? Didn't expect him to score but he stopped throwing hits, too. Remember earlier this year when he took out Foligno (I think)? How everyone was calling him selfish and so on? Now half of you want to give him upwards of $2M per. An it was N4L who originally brought up the "2nd and a mid tier prospect" as fair value, and at that time got lots of arguments, saying that we'd never get that much for him.

I guess I'm just confused with the sudden reversal of opinions.

wprager wrote:I have to say that I used to really like Neil, but the past two years (ever since he became a daddy, pretty much, except for the first game after his daughter was born) he's not been very consistent. Remember last year when he disappeared on the road? Didn't expect him to score but he stopped throwing hits, too. Remember earlier this year when he took out Foligno (I think)? How everyone was calling him selfish and so on? Now half of you want to give him upwards of $2M per. An it was N4L who originally brought up the "2nd and a mid tier prospect" as fair value, and at that time got lots of arguments, saying that we'd never get that much for him.

I guess I'm just confused with the sudden reversal of opinions.

For me personally, I wanted to punch the entire Sens' team in the face for the first 30 games or so (until I realized that they were doomed). I stick by the 1.5 or 1.6 max, but that's more because I like the way he put up hits, plays a tough board game and can fight with the best of them. He'll probably never put up the points again, but hitting 10 goals shouldn't be out of the realm of possibility when this team is in a better place.

I thought at the time that Cody Bass could take over for Neil and that would be that, but we've certainly seen that there's only one Neil as a fighter anyway - and I'm nervous that a lot of the team toughness would leave if he left. Bass will be fine, but he'll likely never win a fight against some of the guys Neil faces. And that brings energy to the lineup etc.

Yes indeed I do remember all of that. ^ Eeesh.

A fighter is easy to find. A fighter with some skill, not so easy. Recently, though, Neil has shown little other than fighting skill. Call up Yablonski.

We don't need him. McGuire made a good point about Detroit this morning. They go after raw talent, who cares about fighters. If you don't have a fighter on your team, you don't get in fights, big deal. It's better to have guys who can play than guys who are only there to fight. I think you're going to see the Laraques and McGrattans of the league begin to become extinct and more teams follow this train of thought.

That being said, Neil is a good piece because he brings alot more than just fighting. He's a fantastic 4th line guy. Why we don't run him with Ruutu and Bass on our 4th line is beyond me. Our lineup right now (if fully healthy) should be like this:

Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley
Fisher-Regin-Foligno
Vermette-Kelly-Donovan
Ruutu-Bass-Neil

That's it. McAmmond isn't worth much IMO, Schubert is a defenseman. Winchester, I could take or leave.

Jordo wrote:We don't need him. McGuire made a good point about Detroit this morning. They go after raw talent, who cares about fighters. If you don't have a fighter on your team, you don't get in fights, big deal. It's better to have guys who can play than guys who are only there to fight. I think you're going to see the Laraques and McGrattans of the league begin to become extinct and more teams follow this train of thought.

That being said, Neil is a good piece because he brings alot more than just fighting. He's a fantastic 4th line guy. Why we don't run him with Ruutu and Bass on our 4th line is beyond me. Our lineup right now (if fully healthy) should be like this:

Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley
Fisher-Regin-Foligno
Vermette-Kelly-Donovan
Ruutu-Bass-Neil

That's it. McAmmond isn't worth much IMO, Schubert is a defenseman. Winchester, I could take or leave.

Vermette is our best face off man (top-10if not top-5 in the league) and he's our 3rd line winger? I'd say either trade him or move him to 2nd (or move his line to 2nd).

I'd also want to keep Shannon and make room for Winchester somewhere.

Sorry, I should have flopped Kelly and Vermette at the C position, just a brain fart.... Vermette is on his last year in this team though.. He's gone, maybe even at the deadline.

What about trading him at the deadline and resigning him the summer? Or trading him at the deadline and resigning him 2-3 years down the line when we're a contender again.

He's not going to want to continue to fight 10+ times a season as he gets older - it's really a tough call on this one.

Neil is one of the genuine nice guys on the sens (spezza is another) - always friendly and he always talks to you like you're on the same level.

I also can't see him wanted to raise his family in many other cities (Canadian but a huge city).

Jordo wrote:We don't need him. McGuire made a good point about Detroit this morning. They go after raw talent, who cares about fighters. If you don't have a fighter on your team, you don't get in fights, big deal. It's better to have guys who can play than guys who are only there to fight. I think you're going to see the Laraques and McGrattans of the league begin to become extinct and more teams follow this train of thought.

That being said, Neil is a good piece because he brings alot more than just fighting. He's a fantastic 4th line guy. Why we don't run him with Ruutu and Bass on our 4th line is beyond me. Our lineup right now (if fully healthy) should be like this:

Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley
Fisher-Regin-Foligno
Vermette-Kelly-Donovan
Ruutu-Bass-Neil

That's it. McAmmond isn't worth much IMO, Schubert is a defenseman. Winchester, I could take or leave.

Dare to take Shannon off the 2nd line!!?

Actually, I'm only half kidding, I love Ryan Shannon. Maybe it's because Murray Diddle our secondary scoring so much by not resigning...Stillman (almost PPG in Florida!), maybe it's his speed, his cycling, his backcheck. I love him.

Same with Winchester actually, but I see him as a full time checker with Kelly (if we have to keep Kelly that is).