James Neal seems to have once again found the stride that led him to be a perennial 25 goal-scorer in the NHL.
In the Oilers’ first six games of the season, James Neal has found the back of the net eight times. His scoring pace has been on an absolute tear, scoring with a prolific 38 percent shooting percentage, good for the best shooting percentage in the league among players with more than 10 shots on goal. Naturally, that shooting percentage is bound to go down once Neal cools off. After all, his career shooting percentage is only 12 percent. However, Edmonton might have found something that has eluded them since trading away Taylor Hall: a top-line scoring winger.
Looking back on the trade that brought Neal to Edmonton this summer, the dividends are already exponentially in favor of the Oilers. Their trade was Neal for cast-aside forward Milan Lucic with the Calgary Flames. In Lucic’s 79 games for the Oilers last season, he only scored six goals with a shooting percentage of eight percent. For two players making relatively the same amount per season (Neal makes $250,000 less a season), the Oilers have made out by securing a top goal scorer for a player whose contract they were dying to get out from under.
Things aren’t all positive for Neal in his new home, however. Six of his eight goals have come on the man-advantage, a pace that is bound to slow down. That ranks as a tie for second behind teammate Connor McDavid for the most points on the powerplay, and the most goals on the man-advantage this season. He also plays with one of if not the best player in the world in Connor McDavid, who gets much of the attention of the opposition, especially on the powerplay.
Despite all of this, I expect Neal to finish with 30 goals on a desperate-for-scoring Oilers squad. He has eclipsed 25 goals for four of the five teams he played for before getting traded to the Oilers, with his career-high coming while playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby. In that same season, he scored 18 powerplay goals and 30 powerplay points, which is similar to the numbers he is reaching for this campaign. James Neal might be the first trade to pay off for the Oilers in a long line of missteps.
