A week ago at the NHL Draft, there was a big trade that went down before a lot of the teams made their first round picks. Pittsburgh decided to trade James Neal, who has been on the trading block for a few weeks now, to the Nashville Predators for Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling. Let's take a look at this trade from each team's standpoint.
Nashville- The Predators were need of a big goal scorer who can really help their offense. It wasn't that good this past season under Barry Trotz and that's one of the reasons why he got fired at the end of the season. James Neal is most likely going to play on either the top line in Nashville or the second line. He's a former 40 goal scorer but he's not going to do that down there. He scored 40 because he had Evgeni Malkin as his center and he makes everyone good.
The same goes with Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz as Crosby got him to make the Olympic team this year. I don't know who Neal's center will be since I'm sure Nashville is going to upgrade their roster before the season starts. This trade looks good for Nashville right now but we'll see if James Neal can produce the way he's been producing the past few seasons.
Pittsburgh- A lot of Penguin fans I saw on twitter when this trade happened didn't like it at all including me. The return wasn't as good as I expected it to be and I thought Jim Rutherford could have tried to get Nashville's 11th pick in there too. The predators actually posted a video of how the trade went down on their website last night and a few things jumped out at me. Rutherford was trying to acquire the 22nd pick from the Avalanche and it didn't go down. Who was going to be sent here? Apparently Pittsburgh would have sent James Neal and picks 22 and 23 for Nick Spaling, Patric Hornqvist, and the 11th pick.
That trade would've been better if you ask me but now let's talk about the trade. Pittsburgh got a very good player in Patric Hornqvist who I've liked for a long time. He goes to the net and gets goals there. It's pretty much his sweet spot. He scored 30 goals with linemates Marcel Goc and Steve Sullivan down there one time. Imagine what Evgeni Malkin can do to him or vice versa. Geno could get Hornqvist to 40 or Hornqvist could get Malkin to 50, which he did in 2012 when he won the MVP.
Nick Spaling is for depth in the bottom six and he should provide it. He had a pretty good season in Nashville last season with over 10 goals and 10 assists. He should fit well with Brandon Sutter assuming Pittsburgh re-signs him to a new contract. Overall, this trade is good for both teams. James Neal wore out his welcome in Pittsburgh with all of the dirty play he did and he also wasn't good in the locker room. We'll see how each player does when the season starts.