VIDEO: Behind the scenes of the James Neal trade
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The Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators completed the biggest deal at the NHL Entry Draft last weekend. The Penguins flipped scoring winger James Neal to Nashville in exchange for forwards Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling.
The trade talks were documented by NHL.com. Here's the revealing video evidence:
As the video shows (sorry, Brendan Shanahan), the trade evolved from one that included a pair of draft picks into one that featured a pair of players with NHL experience.
"[Rutherford] says he can make a trade to get [pick number] 23 [overall]," Poile said. "So that will give us 22 and 23 for 11."
The 23rd pick belonged to the Colorado Avalanche, who nearly dealt it to the Penguins, according to the Denver Post.
The Predators kept the 11th pick and selected Swiss center Kevin Fiala.
[H/T Pro Hockey Talk]