Are the Leafs going to go after James Neal?
A pretty recognizable name has found his way onto the waiver wire on Sunday, as the St. Louis Blues have elected to waive 34-year-old James Neal.
While Neal's best days are undoubtedly behind him, that does not necessarily mean that he doesn't still have some gas left in the tank, so I ask; could James Neal be an option in Toronto? If the Leafs believe that he is, he's a very low-risk add, but there is a caveat. The Leafs would likely have to waive or trade a player of their own to fit him in.
Neal has shown signs of decline over the past two seasons, but he has also shown, most recently in 2019-20, that he still knows how to put the puck in the net.
So far this season, Neal has been held to just 4 points through 17 games, but has not been utilized much where he excels the most - on the power play. While the power play hasn't exactly been a weakness for the Leafs this season, adding Neal to that second unit could be a crafty good move, especially during the playoffs, where Neal is over half a point per game in his career with 58 points in 110 career playoff games.
This is where it gets interesting. This could go down one of two ways, if the Leafs are interested.
1 - The Leafs could waive someone like Pierre Engvall, who isn't exactly blowing anyone away with his talent. It's also possible that they could waive the underachieving Nick Ritchie, who was a healthy scratch against the Sens on Saturday night.
2 - They can hope that Neal clears, and try to facilitate a trade with the Blues, much like what they did with Alex Galchenyuk last season. That way, Neal would not require waivers to he assigned to the Toronto Marlies.
With respect to Ritchie or Engvall, neither player is so far superior to Neal that it would be a catastrophic downgrade. Not from a production standpoint and not from a possession standpoint.
Further to that fact, we all know that Engvall can kill penalties, which was one of his more valuable qualities for the Leafs. To that, I say that with David Kampf, Mitch Marner, Alexander Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev, Ondrej Kase and William Nylander around, we're not going to miss Pierre Engvall on the PK.
Neal, a Whitby, Ontario native, has 20 goals or more in 11 of his 14 NHL seasons. Perhaps having a guy with that sort of consistency in the bottom six could benefit the Buds down the stretch and in the postseason, when goals are fewer and further between.
The other thing about Neal that should draw some intrigue is that he is a true left winger who can play up or down the lineup, depending on the situation, or if the injury bug bites. We saw what he did a couple of years back on Connor McDavid's wing, so we know he can play with speedy, skilled guys as well if need be.
Finally, Neal is on an expiring contract, earning just $750K. If there ever was a low-risk move that had the chance to pay dividends, this is it.
We know how valuable depth is toward the end of the season and in the playoffs, and I just feel as though there aren't a lot of down sides to a move like this one.
