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Make no mistake, there are no hard feelings here.

Neil, who suited up for 53 games last season, had lengthy meeting with Dorion and Lee Tuesday at the Canadian Tire Centre. At the end of the day, they’re both doing what’s best for both sides and since Neil wants to play another season this gives him the opportunity to see what’s out there in the free agency market.

At the end of meeting the two sides shook hands and agreed to head their separate ways.

“They had a meeting with him and told him, ‘We don’t think you’re going to be happy with this role’,” Neil’s agent Todd Reynolds told Postmedia.

“Neil said, ‘Yeah, I don’t think I would be either and it’s probably not what I’d like to endure for a year’. (They agreed) let’s just mutually go our separate ways here and see if something better is out there for you where they’re going to give you eight, nine or 10 minutes a night possibly.

“That’s what he wants to do. He wants to play and still believes he can play and he wants to try to play for another year.”

Though Neil and his wife Caitlin have built up strong roots in the community, he just isn’t ready to retire. The possibility of an off-ice role with the Senators in the organization has been discussed in the past and that may still be on the table even if Neil does sign elsewhere to play next season or if he can’t find a job next year.

The Senators don’t want to stand in Neil’s way if he wants to play and still feels he can contribute elsewhere. There’s no question he has value and there’s a strong belief he’ll be able to get a one-year contract to play the same kind of role he did every night when he pulled on the No. 25 jersey with the Senators.