I have mixed feelings about this trade. I feel depressed, reluctantly optimistic, angry, and stressed all in one. So, let’s get started, shall we?
I love James Neal, and I’m extremely sad to see him go. However, it’s not his hot-n-cold play that I’ll miss. No, it’s his lovely face I’ll miss most. It hurts so much to see a guy that I love go to my least favorite team in the world. That’s what put me in denial and made me look like this:
However…let’s face it: Neal has proven himself to be a one-trick pony who isn’t really good at backchecking, but doesn’t make up for it in scoring colossal numbers. We’ve waited and waited to see him reach his so-called potential, but it hasn’t happened, and it would have done no good to keep him around and wait even longer.
As for Matt Niskanen, I will truly miss taking out my frustration on him. Really, I will. I’ll miss his doofy goatee and that deer-in-the-headlights look he got every time he was forced to make a play. I’ll miss calling him Niskers and nearly having a heart attack when he does something correctly. However, I have one thing to say to the Penguins: he’s your problem now. YEAH I WENT THERE.
And one big positive that comes from all of this is that the Stars have freed up some cap space, which, you know, might mean good things on the B-Rad front. See, Neal would have been paid $3.5 million next year, so that’s a nice salary to get off the books.
As for the new guy, Goligoski, I’ll just wait and see. As a Penguins-hater I don’t watch many of their games, so I don’t really know anything about him. All I know is that he’s not as pretty as Nealer. And that’s a damn shame.
Welp, that’s it for now. I’m really curious to see how everything plays out.
GO STARS.