Neil out to prove his worth

From the Ottawa Citizen
By Allen Panzeri

There were many people in Ottawa who rubbed their eyes and took a second look at the figure when they read that the Senators had re-signed Chris Neil to a four-year contract worth $8-million U.S.

Neil, 30, loves the team, wears his heart on his sleeve and is willing to take on any of the league's heavyweights to protect his teammates.

There's undeniable value in that, but $2 million a season seemed an awfully high price for someone who had only three goals and seven assists last season, and only six goals and 14 assists in 2007-08.

Whether it's good value is a question Neil and general manager Bryan Murray will be asked often over the next four years, but it's the going price these days for a player such as Neil.

He actually could have got more than that very easily. Several teams offered him at least $300,000 a season more when he became an unrestricted free agent, but he left that money on the table to stay with Ottawa, the team that drafted him in 1998.

"It was worth money for me to stay here," Neil said Wednesday while serving as a guest instructor at the Ottawa Senators Summer Hockey Camp.

Neil's no dummy, though. That $2 million will be on everyone's mind, so he'll face increased expectations. He intends to deliver.

"I think the biggest thing for me is you know what you get every night," he said. "I come out, I show up, I work hard. If I'm going out and finishing my checks and doing my thing -- if I'm not able to put 20 goals in the net, but I'm able to go out and run a bunch of guys through the end boards -- then that's the team aspect of the game. What I bring, a lot of teams definitely look for that. I think Ottawa realizes what I do bring, and that's kind of why my contract is a four-year deal, because it's what you do game in and game out, not what you do in one individual game."

As with the team, he's looking forward to a better run next season, and get out of the way if you don't plan to help -- a not-so-subtle shot at disgruntled Dany Heatley.

"The whole team had a rough season and I was a part of it," Neil said. "Not making the playoffs for the first time in my NHL career, it was devastating, so we want to get back to being the elite team that we are.

"I think, for the most part, everyone else is on the same page. I think the guys that don't want to be here, they'll address the issue and take care of that in due time."

I for one am one of those people that was pretty upset about the amount of money we gave Neil. I just hope that he can really step it up this year, in every aspect of his game. I would like to see him add some assists, fine if he can't score, but he should be at least putting some points up. I know that's not necessarily his game, but, he had 2 pretty good seasons back to back, and I thought for sure he was only going to get better from there. He really needs to get himself back to the way he was in 05-06 and 06-07.

05-06 - 79GP - 16G - 17A - 33PTS - +9 - 204PIM - 126Shots - 12.70 S%

06-07 - 82GP - 12G - 16A - 28PTS - +6 - 177PIM - 139Shots

Okay, so the 05-06 season, was clearly his best, that's what Neil should be doing every year.

I don't think that's too much to ask.

I m still marveling at where he could have been offered $2.3M. Certainly not a 4-year contract. I'll still be cheering for him, but even if he scores 10 goals and gets 20 assists he'll be overpaid in my opinion.

Oh, he went from 6 goals, 14 assists to 3 goals, 7 assists. Following that progression, he is going to get 1 goal and a goal post this year.

wprager wrote:I m still marveling at where he could have been offered $2.3M. Certainly not a 4-year contract. I'll still be cheering for him, but even if he scores 10 goals and gets 20 assists he'll be overpaid in my opinion.

Oh, he went from 6 goals, 14 assists to 3 goals, 7 assists. Following that progression, he is going to get 1 goal and a goal post this year.

It was the Rangers who offered him $2.3. The Leafs actually offered him $2.9; almost wish h would have taken it. He has got to turn his unstellar play around big time!

wprager wrote:I m still marveling at where he could have been offered $2.3M. Certainly not a 4-year contract. I'll still be cheering for him, but even if he scores 10 goals and gets 20 assists he'll be overpaid in my opinion.

Oh, he went from 6 goals, 14 assists to 3 goals, 7 assists. Following that progression, he is going to get 1 goal and a goal post this year.

Oh man, you're probably right. His high scoring days are over by the looks of it.

jamvan wrote:

wprager wrote:I m still marveling at where he could have been offered $2.3M. Certainly not a 4-year contract. I'll still be cheering for him, but even if he scores 10 goals and gets 20 assists he'll be overpaid in my opinion.

Oh, he went from 6 goals, 14 assists to 3 goals, 7 assists. Following that progression, he is going to get 1 goal and a goal post this year.

It was the Rangers who offered him $2.3. The Leafs actually offered him $2.9; almost wish h would have taken it. He has got to turn his unstellar play around big time!

I find that impossible to believe. Burke got Orr for the same term at half the salary. If there are any rumors of him offering $2.9M to Neil then it was only to pay back Murray for the Kadri/Cowen prank.

wprager wrote:

jamvan wrote:

wprager wrote:I m still marveling at where he could have been offered $2.3M. Certainly not a 4-year contract. I'll still be cheering for him, but even if he scores 10 goals and gets 20 assists he'll be overpaid in my opinion.

Oh, he went from 6 goals, 14 assists to 3 goals, 7 assists. Following that progression, he is going to get 1 goal and a goal post this year.

It was the Rangers who offered him $2.3. The Leafs actually offered him $2.9; almost wish h would have taken it. He has got to turn his unstellar play around big time!

I find that impossible to believe. Burke got Orr for the same term at half the salary. If there are any rumors of him offering $2.9M to Neil then it was only to pay back Murray for the Kadri/Cowen prank.

Not a rumour, just fact man. Did you not watch the UFA frenzy shows? It was all over the place.

Comparing Orr to Neil is not justified either. They are not even close to being the same player.

I guess I am another lonely fan of this guy (along with Smith). People complain about his point production. Sure I get that, I understand it has gone down. Remember when he scored 15… he was getting powerplay time. People need to be reminded that in 2005-06 he got 8 PP goals! He no longer gets a sniff of powerplay time. Additionally his ice time has dropped a couple of minutes.

He has to do ALL the police work for the club since McGrattan left and he has to do that against some guys who have 40 pounds on him. That is not easy. It saps you strength an obviously takes you off the ice for 5 or more minutes while YOUR teammates enjoy the momentum of your effort. Also note he never gets beaten badly in a scrap. That is impressive considering his size. That’s called heart my friends.

As far as hitting goes, he is probably in the top 15, if not higher, of feared hitters in the game. He can change momentum with 1 open ice hit. That brings butts out of the seats as much as his fights. Sure he walks the line but every big hitter does. See Lucic, Cooke, Ott, Komisarek, Weber, even Ovechkin etc…

As far as character goes, he brings it in spades. He is no nonsense and he plays hard every shift. I have never heard a call into the post game show saying Neil really dogged it tonight. KLee always ragged on him about disappearing in other rinks, I think that is crap but consider where it is coming from.

The other thing he does, and does well, is throw opponents off their game. Along with Ruutu we have a team that can be very hard and irritating to play against. I am sorry but I would rather that brand of hockey than when we were cottony-soft and won the president's trophy only to lose in the playoffs.

So people can go on about the contract but the truth is he took less than he was offered, by more than one club, to stay here. To me that is WAY better than taking the most you can get, asking for a NMC and then using it against the team a year later to force them to trade you where you want to go.

I AM VERY HAPPY TO HAVE NEILER BACK. I would have loved it to be cheaper but I prefer the cap hit and term to the alternative.

Good luck this year Neil. I will be cheering!

I can't remember the game, but I recall once during a playoff series against Buffalo when Neil (basically) instigated a fight, then turtled when the other player was ready to go. He drew a penalty and I laughed my a$$ off at how clever it was.

I agree with MOI that Neil brings a lot more than the odd goal. Every team should have a player like him. The contract isn't great, but I think Neil is worth keeping even if the salary is a bit inflated.

MurderOnIce wrote:I guess I am another lonely fan of this guy (along with Smith). People complain about his point production. Sure I get that, I understand it has gone down. Remember when he scored 15… he was getting powerplay time. People need to be reminded that in 2005-06 he got 8 PP goals! He no longer gets a sniff of powerplay time. Additionally his ice time has dropped a couple of minutes.

He has to do ALL the police work for the club since McGrattan left and he has to do that against some guys who have 40 pounds on him. That is not easy. It saps you strength an obviously takes you off the ice for 5 or more minutes while YOUR teammates enjoy the momentum of your effort. Also note he never gets beaten badly in a scrap. That is impressive considering his size. That’s called heart my friends.

As far as hitting goes, he is probably in the top 15, if not higher, of feared hitters in the game. He can change momentum with 1 open ice hit. That brings butts out of the seats as much as his fights. Sure he walks the line but every big hitter does. See Lucic, Cooke, Ott, Komisarek, Weber, even Ovechkin etc…

As far as character goes, he brings it in spades. He is no nonsense and he plays hard every shift. I have never heard a call into the post game show saying Neil really dogged it tonight. KLee always ragged on him about disappearing in other rinks, I think that is crap but consider where it is coming from.

The other thing he does, and does well, is throw opponents off their game. Along with Ruutu we have a team that can be very hard and irritating to play against. I am sorry but I would rather that brand of hockey than when we were cottony-soft and won the president's trophy only to lose in the playoffs.

So people can go on about the contract but the truth is he took less than he was offered, by more than one club, to stay here. To me that is WAY better than taking the most you can get, asking for a NMC and then using it against the team a year later to force them to trade you where you want to go.

I AM VERY HAPPY TO HAVE NEILER BACK. I would have loved it to be cheaper but I prefer the cap hit and term to the alternative.

Good luck this year Neil. I will be cheering!

Hard to argue with most of the points in this post, but this last statement pretty much sums it up for most Sens fans. Point is, if we are not getting any offense out of him, a policeman could have been had for under $2 million. Yes, loyalty is worth something no doubt, I just question whether it's worth an extra million with us being so tight against the cap.

MurderOnIce wrote:I guess I am another lonely fan of this guy (along with Smith). People complain about his point production. Sure I get that, I understand it has gone down. Remember when he scored 15… he was getting powerplay time. People need to be reminded that in 2005-06 he got 8 PP goals! He no longer gets a sniff of powerplay time. Additionally his ice time has dropped a couple of minutes.

He has to do ALL the police work for the club since McGrattan left and he has to do that against some guys who have 40 pounds on him. That is not easy. It saps you strength an obviously takes you off the ice for 5 or more minutes while YOUR teammates enjoy the momentum of your effort. Also note he never gets beaten badly in a scrap. That is impressive considering his size. That’s called heart my friends.

As far as hitting goes, he is probably in the top 15, if not higher, of feared hitters in the game. He can change momentum with 1 open ice hit. That brings butts out of the seats as much as his fights. Sure he walks the line but every big hitter does. See Lucic, Cooke, Ott, Komisarek, Weber, even Ovechkin etc…

As far as character goes, he brings it in spades. He is no nonsense and he plays hard every shift. I have never heard a call into the post game show saying Neil really dogged it tonight. KLee always ragged on him about disappearing in other rinks, I think that is crap but consider where it is coming from.

The other thing he does, and does well, is throw opponents off their game. Along with Ruutu we have a team that can be very hard and irritating to play against. I am sorry but I would rather that brand of hockey than when we were cottony-soft and won the president's trophy only to lose in the playoffs.

So people can go on about the contract but the truth is he took less than he was offered, by more than one club, to stay here. To me that is WAY better than taking the most you can get, asking for a NMC and then using it against the team a year later to force them to trade you where you want to go.

I AM VERY HAPPY TO HAVE NEILER BACK. I would have loved it to be cheaper but I prefer the cap hit and term to the alternative.

Good luck this year Neil. I will be cheering!

I don't think anyone's complaining, I think a lot of fans know what you get with Neil and just think it's not worth $2 million in today's cap era. Neil is a warrior, a super human being as well and a SEN, so he can't be that bad!

This organization also is one that shows some loyalty to it's players... Alfie, Neil, Phillips, Spezza, Kelly, Fisher... oh and even that RAT FINK HEATLEY even got shown the loyalty. Gerber got more loyalty than anyone would have expected.

I am not un-proud (not a word?) of that even though it costs us at times.

hemlock wrote:

Hard to argue with most of the points in this post, but this last statement pretty much sums it up for most Sens fans. Point is, if we are not getting any offense out of him, a policeman could have been had for under $2 million. Yes, loyalty is worth something no doubt, I just question whether it's worth an extra million with us being so tight against the cap.[/quote]

He brings a lot more than just policework. Neil is without a doubt one of the best hitters in the league (as MOI said). He draws penalties, gathers momentum through hits and fights and bleeds red, black and gold. There's no comparing Neil to Orr. Especially if they put him back in front of the net for the odd PP. He gets PP minutes, he'll pot enough goals to justify the contract to those who think that offensive stats are the whole measure of a player.

(Not saying that that's what you think. That's intended to be a blanket statement for anyone who tries to justify or diminish a player's value based solely on points.)

spader wrote:(Not saying that that's what you think. That's intended to be a blanket statement for anyone who tries to justify or diminish a player's value based solely on points.)

Not based solely on points. I think if you look at Neil's body of work, you could replace that for less than we signed him for. My thinking is: Is that difference worth his loyalty?

hemlock wrote:

spader wrote:(Not saying that that's what you think. That's intended to be a blanket statement for anyone who tries to justify or diminish a player's value based solely on points.)

Not based solely on points. I think if you look at Neil's body of work, you could replace that for less than we signed him for. My thinking is: Is that difference worth his loyalty?

I am not sure I agree. Not all fighters are big hitters and not all fighters can play 10 - 12 valuable minutes per game.

Not all big hitters can fight.

Neil being here means we don't have to waste a roster spot on a plug who is a defensive liability/ offensive liability that takes bad penalties at the worst times.

Neil is one of the very few policeman who could be in the NHL despite his fighting. That is worth something, oh and so is loyalty.