Thank you, @jneal_18. pic.twitter.com/nYe52VoNXc
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) June 22, 2017
Sad news coming out of Smashville, yet we can’t help but be excited for this new opportunity for James Neal.
The 2017 NHL Expansion Draft selected one player from the 30 clubs to play for the new team, the Vegas Golden Knights, selecting forward James Neal from the Preds to play.
According to NHL.com Predators General Manager David Poile says,
“The Predators have lost a really good person and a really good player in James Neal…
..With how well we played in the playoffs, I’d certainly like to bring everybody back, but the prices [to make a deal with Vegas] were very high. [McPhee] was looking for younger players or high draft picks, and at the end of the day, I just felt that we had to do what the Expansion Draft was set out to do and that was to lose a player. In this case, we lost James Neal and that’s a pretty big price to pay.”
Thanks for the incredible years, especially 2016-2017! We’re gonna miss him!
Read more of the story from NHL.com here.
Hate to see @jneal_18 go. Thank you so much from all of Smashville. We wish you the best in Vegas. 😿 pic.twitter.com/zVWeyEOlma
— Gnash (@Gnash00) June 22, 2017