The Nashville Predators made a big splash in June of 2014 when they traded Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling to the Penguins for James Neal. It had been many years since the Predators had a sniper of Neal’s resume, probably back to Paul Kariya in 2007.
The Smashville faithful were all abuzz waiting for the season while pundits around the country said that Neal was a product of playing alongside Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh. It turns out that both were right in a way. In Neal’s final season in Pittsburgh he put up 27 goals and 61 points in only 59 games.