5 free agents the Florida Panthers can sign to get back to playoffs

GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA FEBRUARY 14, 2018: Olympic Athlete from Russia Ilya Kovalchuk looks on in their men's preliminary round ice hockey match against Slovakia during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, at the Gangneung Hockey Centre. Valery Sharifulin/TASS (Photo by Valery SharifulinTASS via Getty Images) /

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3. W James Neal

The Panthers lost Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights, and then watched them be the third (75 points) and fourth (60 points) leading scorers respectively on that team during the regular season. For a team that needed more consistent scoring depth up front, that’s a hard pill to have swallowed all season.

Neal was one of the biggest names to land with the Golden Knights in the expansion draft, after being with the Western Conference champion Nashville Predators last year and for the two previous seasons. Prior to that, he spent time with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Dallas Stars.

Neal was Vegas’ fourth-leading goal scorer during the regular season with 25, over 71 games. But but his -11 plus-minus was toward the bottom on the entire team, and he has posted a -21 plus-minus over the last two regular seasons.

Neal was once one of the league’s most prolific power play snipers, with a league-high 18 goals with the man advantage in 2011-12 and 38 power play goals over a three-season stretch starting with that campaign. He isn’t on that level anymore, but his five power play goals this year during the regular season would have been tied for fourth on the Panthers. The league’s 21st-ranked power play this year (18.9 percent) could use more punch, and Neal can provide it as long as his slowly declining broader value can be minimized.

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