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Penguins fans will love James Neal as much as they will miss Goligoski

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ByDisco Stu

Feb 21, 2011

Today, Ray Shero pulled off another trade that is being touted by Dallas fans as highway robbery.  The Penguins sent crowd favorite defenseman, Alex Goligoski to the Dallas Stars for Left Winger, James Neal and Defenseman, Matt Niskanen.  Stars’ fans are already crying that they wouldn’t have taken Goligoski straight up for Neal and yet, somehow, Trader Ray got them to throw in Niskanen, who Penguins fans should remember from his near forgettable fight with Sidney Crosby back in November.Neal, who has 21 goals and 39 points in 59 games this year instantly becomes the Penguins leading goal scorer among active players.  He has the potential, I believe, to score between 40 and 50 in a year skating with a healthy Crosby.  He has a little bit of grit in his game as evidenced by his 60 penalty minutes, and he is definitely not afraid to shoot the puck having already accumulated 160 shots on goal.

As Krundle has said repeatedly during the run up to this trade, moving Goligoski could be a huge mistake as it would leave the Penguins with two rookie defensemen in their top six going into the playoffs, something I’m sure none of us wanted to do.  Well, apparently, neither did  Ray Shero.  He addressed this concern by getting Dallas to also include Matt Niskanen which should allay all of those fears.  Niskanen has never been known for having the offensive prowess that Goligoski does, but with Letang and Martin, the Penguins were covered in that department especially as the Penguins liked to occasionally employ four forwards on the Power Play.  Niskanen brings a good, steady stay at home presence, and is only a -1 which isn’t too bad.

The best news of the entire trade is that both Neal and Niskanen are signed at reasonable salaries for next season as well, Neal at $2.9, and Niskanen at $1.5.  I’m sure this will spell the end for at least one of the Penguins’ current forwards who are UFAs at the end of the season.

I know I for one will miss Goose, and would like to take this opportunity to thank him on behalf of all Penguin fans for his time and service here and for all he contributed to our two Cup Finals teams, but you have to give something to get something, and the Penguins were able to trade from a position of strength to fix a big weakness.

18 thoughts on “Penguins fans will love James Neal as much as they will miss Goligoski”
  1. I would have traded Letang, dumped more salary and lost a guy with 4% scoring percentage and got most of his points on second assists when Crosby was playing. But he does get great reviews fro Pens TV game callers.

    1. Don’t look for Despres to start the season here next year. He will need at least some time in WB to get used to the speed of the game at this level. With Niskanen, Strait and Bortuzzo(assuming neither of the last two get traded), I think we’ll be fine at D without Goose.

  2. I’m still waiting to see this imaginary offensive ability that everyone claims Martin has. With all the PP time he has, what does he have, 3 goals? This Niskanen has had better goal scoring years and better overall point years and he’s only in his fourth year. I hope losing Goligoski’s ability to move the puck out of our own end doesn’t come back to bite us in the ass.

  3. Huge fan of Neal, huge fan of Crosby. But I wouldn’t expect Neal’s numbers to improve much, if at all, between Dallas and Pittsburgh. Crosby’s the greatest player in the world, but he does not have a Lemieux-like ability to elevate his linesmates. Hossa, a better talent than Neal and Crosby’s best winger to date, produced the same with Crosby as he did elsewhere, about a point per game. Love the trade – Niskanen to replace Goligoski was the huge key – but I think we need to temper our expectations for Neal. He should put up 25-30 goals and 65-70 points a year, and that’s pretty darned good.

    1. The difference between the player Crosby was for the five and half minutes that Hossa was here three years ago, and the player he is now is light years. Crosby was only 20 years old when he played with Hossa. He has matured quite a bit in the last three years and still has a few more years to go before he hits his prime. My guess is that if the Penguins re-sign Neal after next season, he could potentially be between an 80 and 90 point player, and that’s even better

      1. I obviously hope you’re right, but Sid has yet to elevate anyone. Kunitz is having a fine year, but he’s had similar years in Anaheim. A lot will also depend on Neal’s PP time next year – who do you bump off? 87/71/58 are locks. Kunitz has done a good job as traffic cop in front of the goalie, so it’d be hard to remove him. That means either 7 on the other point, or 71 plays the other point and you put Neal or Staal on the other side of Crosby.

        1. I’m not that big of a proponent of Staal on the first PP unit. If they could get Martin to come around as one of the point men, how lethal would we be with Geno and Staal on the second unit with Niskanen QBing?

          1. Ah, but that would mean they had to split up Sid and Geno on the 1st unit. While it might be for the best, I don’t see them doing that at risk of “offending” Geno. They have yet to do that, even when the PP was terrible for long stretches. But these are good problems!

            1. Exactly!!!!!

              I think it’s about time to split up Sid and Geno on the Power Play. The Hell with “offending” anyone. You’re all adults now. Live with it. If they want to play nice, they can alternate which of Sid and Geno plays with the first line. I’m pretty sure Disco Dan can find a way to make them all feel good about it

    1. Debby, you’re gonna LOVE Neal, and Niskanen should be a solid but unspectacular replacement for Goligoski on the 3rd D pairing. I wish Goose the best, but Shero couldn’t pass this deal up. He sold high… very high.

      1. I am a big Goose fan…..BUT you could not pass this one up…a young power forward of Neal’s ability and a very serviceable #5 Dman both signed for reasonable numbers…..take that all day, but do wish Goose the best in big D.

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