Chris Neil's play so far this season...worth 2 mil? With Poll

If he can continue at this pace and end up with 20 goals and 40 points, and then do that for another three seasons after that, then I'll say he has earned his keep. I love what he is doing out there, but look at Donovan at 1/3 his salary. As much as I love what Dono is bringing I know it's not going to continue for 82 games. Same with Neil. He'll have good streaks and bad ones. But if he keeps playing like this, he'll keep getting minutes, maybe some PP time as well.

Based on his play since being moved up the depth chart he definitely has earned his salary. The question is can he keep it up? If so then we've got a solid gritty player who can pitch in with some goals.

Having Carkner there is helping Neil in a big way right now. He doesnt have to go out there and worry about defending everyone on the ice and even other guys are stepping it up a bit.

Being a 3rd line guy and putting in that kind of effort every night he is def worth the 2 mil he is getting. I've never disliked this signing for a second.

I was sitting on the fence on the Neil signing, although I recall clarifying another poster's opinion and getting thrown into the pile of people who weren't supportive.

The signing is a great one right now because:

a)He wants to be here. That's what the Sens are about right now.
b)He's not surrounded by pluggers but actual talent.
c)He's getting decent ice time with that talent.
d)Carkner is a beast which gives Neil some mental and physical relief. This also changes his role from pure fighter to a more complete player, at least IMO.

Conversely, the $ amount on the signing would be in question if Neil was getting only a few minutes of ice time each game with weak players, Neil perceived his only value to the team as being a fighter and the only fighter in the line up. Then we might get an underenergized, often injured, frustrated version of Neil. That guy wouldn't be worth $2 mil.

My answer, yes, nobody else brings the mix of what he has. He's playing like he's worth MORE than $2 mil and I think he's an invaluable member of the team.

If he can continue at this pace and end up with 20 goals and 40 points, and then do that for another three seasons after that, then I'll say he has earned his keep. I love what he is doing out there, but look at Donovan at 1/3 his salary. As much as I love what Dono is bringing I know it's not going to continue for 82 games. Same with Neil. He'll have good streaks and bad ones. But if he keeps playing like this, he'll keep getting minutes, maybe some PP time as well.

Earned his keep? Isn't that a bit extreme? If Neil reached 40 points while hitting and fighting I would pay him more than $2 mil.

It's early in the season, but so far Neil is making a very good case for his pay cheque. Hopefully he can keep this going all season.

wprager wrote:If he can continue at this pace and end up with 20 goals and 40 points, and then do that for another three seasons after that, then I'll say he has earned his keep. I love what he is doing out there, but look at Donovan at 1/3 his salary. As much as I love what Dono is bringing I know it's not going to continue for 82 games. Same with Neil. He'll have good streaks and bad ones. But if he keeps playing like this, he'll keep getting minutes, maybe some PP time as well.

20 goals, 40 points? Really?

N4L wrote:

wprager wrote:If he can continue at this pace and end up with 20 goals and 40 points, and then do that for another three seasons after that, then I'll say he has earned his keep. I love what he is doing out there, but look at Donovan at 1/3 his salary. As much as I love what Dono is bringing I know it's not going to continue for 82 games. Same with Neil. He'll have good streaks and bad ones. But if he keeps playing like this, he'll keep getting minutes, maybe some PP time as well.

20 goals, 40 points? Really?

If Neil can do 10+ goals, 30+ points, we should be doing cartwheels. It's great to see him chipping in here and there, but that's not his main role or the source of his value.

That said, with guys like Regin, Shannon, Neil, and Cheechoo, I do think we have one of the better all-around bottom sixes in the eastern conference. They're going to give teams fits all year long. 50-60 goals for line 3, and 25-30 from our fourth, looks within reach right now -- and I can't stress how deep that would make our team. A strong goal total on the year overall would be 250. If your bottom lines are producing something better than a third of your offence, you're in pretty good shape. 160 goals out of our top 6 forwards + our top 6 D, collectively, would not exactly be a super lofty goal to attain.

No one got to watch the game on tv (thanks Toronto biased CBC) but highlights showed Alfie getting smoked by Bogosian. Afterwards, some of the guys went over and tried to get at him but, not with much effort. Neil or Carkner have to get at this guy and feed him his teeth. No one should level Alfie and skate away.

111519 wrote:No one got to watch the game on tv (thanks Toronto biased CBC) but highlights showed Alfie getting smoked by Bogosian. Afterwards, some of the guys went over and tried to get at him but, not with much effort. Neil or Carkner have to get at this guy and feed him his teeth. No one should level Alfie and skate away.

There was actually a big scrum that ensued, it was great to see. Right before that play, Volchie absolutely leveled a Thrasher, don't remember who. That led to a break out where Alfie got smoked. At that very instant, Phillips was heading on a line change but then stopped and bee lined it towards Bogosian, and a huge scrum ensued. I was really happy with the intensity shown. That's why Phillips got a roughing call on the play, and Bogosian was pulled out of the scrum linesmen.

We have a much different team this year than we've had in the past, at least mentally. We owe a lot of this to Clouston in my opinion. It's great to see guys on the bench, there really seems to be a comraderie this year. And after someone scores, the happiness and pride shown from a team standpoint is terrific. Finally we have a team that is exciting to watch again.

is Volchenkov going for one big hit a night now?

Sure looks that way

Bass Destruction wrote:

111519 wrote:No one got to watch the game on tv (thanks Toronto biased CBC) but highlights showed Alfie getting smoked by Bogosian. Afterwards, some of the guys went over and tried to get at him but, not with much effort. Neil or Carkner have to get at this guy and feed him his teeth. No one should level Alfie and skate away.

There was actually a big scrum that ensued, it was great to see. Right before that play, Volchie absolutely leveled a Thrasher, don't remember who. That led to a break out where Alfie got smoked. At that very instant, Phillips was heading on a line change but then stopped and bee lined it towards Bogosian, and a huge scrum ensued. I was really happy with the intensity shown. That's why Phillips got a roughing call on the play, and Bogosian was pulled out of the scrum linesmen.

A-train leveled Bogosian, and Bogosian decided to retaliate by going after Alfie.

Nice to see the team defend the captain, I still have bad memories of that hit by Mark Bell.

Liked what I saw after the Alfi hit but Bogosian got him CLEAN. That was about as good a hit as you can lay in hockey.

111519 wrote:No one got to watch the game on tv (thanks Toronto biased CBC) but highlights showed Alfie getting smoked by Bogosian. Afterwards, some of the guys went over and tried to get at him but, not with much effort. Neil or Carkner have to get at this guy and feed him his teeth. No one should level Alfie and skate away.

I don't think they went at him half-heartedly, but at the same time, they knew it was the cleanest hit in hockey - Alfie cut back through the middle to a guy who had just been absolutely plowed by A-Train and wasn't gonna let Alfie get away with that.

Bogo's a special player - one of my favourites and he took the hit, got up, got back into the play and levelled one of our guys (happened to be Alfie). No issue with that IMO, BUT...Alfie can't do that for his own safety and health. Be more aware Alfie! You're way too important to this team!

I realize his *main* role is to keep the other teams honest, and to put a little fear in the opposition's top line. He's done that job well so far -- hitting (not necessarily fighting) without taking too many penalties. But that's what you expect from your $1.3-1.5M players, all while they are chipping in 7-10 goals. If that's what Neil does, then he's overpaid.

The only way Neil can be worth $2M is if he plays 3rd line minutes and, perhaps, a little PP time. If he goes back to the 4th line (as I suspect, once Shannon and Winchester are back from injury) then I don't know if he will have enough ice time or good-enough line-mates to do anything better than 5-7 goals and 20-25 points. If he continues to play disciplined hockey, hitting legally and drawing more penalties than he takes, even then I doubt he's worth $2M.

But if he can straighten out Spezza by a well-placed statement punctuated with a slash to the back of the legs, then perhaps he'd be earning his salary and then some.

You forgot the 0.5M for the community

wprager wrote:I realize his *main* role is to keep the other teams honest, and to put a little fear in the opposition's top line. He's done that job well so far -- hitting (not necessarily fighting) without taking too many penalties. But that's what you expect from your $1.3-1.5M players, all while they are chipping in 7-10 goals. If that's what Neil does, then he's overpaid.

The only way Neil can be worth $2M is if he plays 3rd line minutes and, perhaps, a little PP time. If he goes back to the 4th line (as I suspect, once Shannon and Winchester are back from injury) then I don't know if he will have enough ice time or good-enough line-mates to do anything better than 5-7 goals and 20-25 points. If he continues to play disciplined hockey, hitting legally and drawing more penalties than he takes, even then I doubt he's worth $2M.

But if he can straighten out Spezza by a well-placed statement punctuated with a slash to the back of the legs, then perhaps he'd be earning his salary and then some.

Fantastic...nothing fans of the team want to see more than their overpaid fourth liner potentially injuring their only top level center. Wonderful...why didn't anyone think of that before?