Flames will get Oilers third rounder in 2020 or 2021 in Lucic swap

Good news, everybody!

According to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, the National Hockey League has made a ruling on the conditional draft pick involved in last summer’s swap with the Edmonton Oilers that saw Milan Lucic become a Calgary Flame. The Flames will receive a pick after all.

The Flames will receive either Edmonton’s third round pick in 2020 or 2021. The condition on the pick at the time of the swap was that the Flames would receive Edmonton’s 2020 third round pick only if James Neal scored 21 goals and he scored 10 more goals than Lucic in 2019-20.

At the time of the pause Neal had scored 19 goals (two below the threshold) with 11 games remaining, while Lucic had scored eight goals. Apparently the NHL has ruled that Neal probably would’ve scored twice more. It’s certainly a more generous settlement than our Pat Steinberg proposed earlier during the pause, where a compensatory pick would’ve gone to Calgary but Edmonton wouldn’t have been penalized.

The Flames owe a third round pick to Chicago as part of the trade that sent Erik Gustafsson to Calgary, which would be the earliest third round selection that they own. If Edmonton elects to transfer their 2020 pick, that selection will go to Chicago. Otherwise, the Flames will send their own third rounder to Chicago to complete that trade.