The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed forward James Neal to a professional tryout, CapFriendly reported Thursday.
Neal, 34, spent the 2021–22 season in the St. Louis Blues organization. He recorded two goals and four points in 19 games with the Blues during the regular season.
Neal is a veteran of 14 National Hockey League seasons with the Dallas Stars, Pittsburgh Penguins, Nashville Predators, Vegas Golden Knights, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Blues.
The Stars originally selected the 6’3″, 212-pound winger in the second round (No. 33 overall) of the 2005 NHL Draft. Neal scored 20 goals in each of his first three seasons with Dallas before being traded to Pittsburgh in 2011.
Neal emerged as a 40-goal scorer on a line with Evgeni Malkin with the Penguins, but ended up losing to Pittsburgh as a member of the Predators in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.
After being selected to join the inaugural Vegas Golden Knights, Neal scored 25 goals in the regular season and helped lead the expansion franchise to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, which they lost to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
Neal signed a five-year contract with the Flames the following summer but struggled to score in his lone season with the team. The Flames quickly shipped him off to Edmonton, where he experienced a mild resurgence before being bought out in 2021.
Despite being demoted by the Blues to the American Hockey League during the 2021–22 season, Neal remained with the organization as a veteran with the Springfield Thunderbirds. He scored 12 points in 17 playoff games to help the Thunderbirds reach the 2022 Calder Cup Final, which they lost to the Chicago Wolves in five games.
Neal has scored 296 goals and 559 points in 869 career NHL regular-season games. Additionally, he’s amassed 33 goals and 58 points in 110 career post-season contests.
The Blue Jackets have been among the NHL’s most aggressive teams this summer, signing Johnny Gaudreau (Neal’s former teammate in Calgary) and Erik Gudbranson to hefty contracts in unrestricted free agency.
Neal will attempt to crack a Blue Jackets forward group that includes Gaudreau, Jakub Voracek, Patrik Laine, Gustav Nyquist, Jack Roslovic, Cole Sillinger, Kent Johnson, Yegor Chinakhov, Emil Bemstrom, Eric Robinson, Sean Kuraly, Justin Danforth, and Kirill Marchenko, among others.
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