Some experts might tell you that James Neal is the guy who scored 27 goals for the Dallas Stars his sophomore season in the NHL. Others will say he is every bit the 41 goal hero that patrols the left wing for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The doubters will say that Neal benefits from playing along side two of the greatest players in the world. I say, that none of that matters. As long as James Neal continues to pull a Pittsburgh Penguins sweater over his head he will live the good life riding shotgun on the Sid Crosby and Geno Malkin show.

Neal is coming off his best year of the four and seems like he could still improve his stats. The Penguins missed a lot of man games this past season and still ended up producing the league’s leading scorer and MVP in Malkin, with Neal finishing seventh in overall scoring and third in goals scored.

By the numbers Neal is a fantasy owner’s dream. You will be hard pressed to find a left wing not named Ovechkin that produces stats in every category and at the level of James Neal. With his size and strength Neal has been willing to go into the corners and lay the hits. He has scaled back on the physical play somewhat, which conversely saw a rise in his offensive production. Surely the Penguins would rather see Neal put pucks in the net, than opponents into the glass.

The formula for Neal’s ascension to the top of the league scorers seems to be his desire to shoot the puck, then shoot the puck and when he’s done with that…..you guessed it, forecheck. Oh, and shoot the puck some more too. With almost all of his offensive categories doubling last season, Neal’s shot total did the same.

About the  only area you can’t lean on Neal for fantasy production is blocked shots and faceoffs, but that’s to be expected. The Penguins want their star wing to stay out of harms’ way, be it in the form of a flying Flyer or a flying puck.  At only 25 years young, Pittsburgh wants to keep their wingman around for a while.