Friends, the world is full of uncertainty right now. We don’t know when hockey will return or even when the 2020 NHL Draft will take place. But Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland told TSN’s Ryan Rishaug in an interview that he doesn’t think the Calgary Flames will be getting the conditional pick connected to last summer’s Milan Lucic for James Neal swap.
Holland feels if season is not resumed, the Oilers will not have to give the conditional third round pick to the flames from the James Neal trade.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) April 7, 2020
Here’s the deal on the conditional 2020 third round pick. The Flames get the pick IF James Neal scores 21 goals (or more) AND the difference between his goals scored and Milan Lucic’s goals scored is 10 or more.
Neal had scored 19 goals for Edmonton when the season was suspended, while Lucic had 8 goals for the Flames. The gap between the two players was 11 goals, but Neal hadn’t scored enough goals to trigger the necessary part of the condition.
If the Flames don’t get Neal’s conditional pick – and it sounds somewhat likely that they won’t given Holland’s confidence – then their own third round pick will be headed to Chicago as part of the Erik Gustafsson trade. The condition in that trade was Chicago would receive the earliest third round the Flames had, which would be their own right now.
The league hasn’t made any determination on this conditional pick one way or another, and likely won’t until the remainder of the season is played or canceled.
