Oilers send Milan Lucic to Flames, but get James Neal back

The Edmonton Oilers were able to shed Milan Lucic and his salary, but time will tell if they gained anything in the deal with the Flames.

The Edmonton Oilers were destined to regret the seven-year, $42 million deal they gave winger Milan Lucic at some point, at new general manager Ken Holland has surely been motivated to shed a bad player with a bloated salary.

On Friday, Holland found a taker. According to multiple reports, Edmonton will send Lucic to the Calgary Flames for winger James Neal. Multiple reports indicate it’s basically a simple one-for-one deal, though the Oilers will reportedly send a conditional draft pick to the Flames and retain some of Lucic’s salary.

Lucic had a meager 54 points (16 goals, 38 assists) over 161 games with the Oilers over the last two seasons, while posting a combined -21 plus/minus rating. He has a cap hit of $6 million each of the next four seasons, through 2022-23.

After scoring 25 goals for the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in 2017-18, Neal signed a five-year, $28.75 million deal with the Flames last offseason. He then promptly delivered a career-low 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in 63 regular season games, as he fell of a cliff during his age-31 season. Back in June Elliotte Friedman of Sportnet reported Calgary was looking to trade him, so they’ve found a taker for their own bad contract with a cap hit ($5.75 million) that almost matches Lucic’s over the next four seasons.

The one thing working for Edmonton is the dynamics of Lucic and Neal’s contracts. Lucic’s deal is considered essentially “buyout proof”, while the Oilers can buyout Neal fairly easily next summer.

Lucic also had to waive a no-movement clause to be dealt, and he’ll have to be protected in the expansion draft too. Neal’s contract has no such trade protections.

The Oilers are parting with a conditional draft pick and retaining a very small piece of Lucic’s remaining money ($600,000) to get Neal’s slightly more palatable contract and gain a bit of flexibility down the road.

To simply get out from under the bad deal given to Lucic by former general manager Peter Chiarelli, any immediate residual costs pale in comparison for the Oilers. And there’s a chance Neal can be revived if he winds up on one of Connor McDavid’s wings at times.