NHL Trade Grade: Oilers and Flames swap Milan Lucic and James Neal
The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames traded two struggling forwards for each other. Milan Lucic is heading to the latter while James Neal is heading to the former.
The Calgary Flames made a big mistake last summer. They signed James Neal to a long-term deal. 12 months later, after the worst season of his career, the Flames regret the deal. The Edmonton Oilers made their mistake by signing Milan Lucic back in 2016. In a very weird turn of events, the two struggling forwards have been swapped for each other.
There could be more pieces involved in this trade. However, at this time, it sounds like the players involved will simply be Neal for Lucic. Neal has a $5.75 million contract over the next four seasons. Meanwhile, Lucic is due a $6 million cap hit over the next four seasons. It sounds like Edmonton will be attaching a conditional draft pick and retaining a little bit of salary.
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Two of the worst contracts in the NHL have just been traded for each other. Let’s take a look at both sides of the deal.
Oilers
If the trade is truly just Neal for Lucic, assuming Edmonton didn’t retain any significant salary, this is a pretty big win for the Oilers. Lucic was an albatross contract, costing them $6 million a year for the next four seasons. More importantly, he had a no-movement clause.
Getting rid of Lucic is a significant improvement for Edmonton. Even if they are taking on another deal that looks bad in Neal. Neal at least has the potential to bounce back. Before last season, he had never scored fewer than 20 goals in any NHL season. It’s not difficult to imagine Neal having success with Connor McDavid.
More importantly, if Neal’s deal isn’t the real deal, moving him won’t be too difficult. After all, he doesn’t have a no-movement clause. This was about the best return Edmonton could have realistically gotten for Lucic. Neal at least has the potential to be a useful player.
Grade: A-. I’m grading on a curve here because Lucic’s deal was always going to be a hard one to get out of. They were going to have to retain salary no matter what. Edmonton took a flyer on a player who has been good in the past. Ken Holland did an excellent job getting rid of Peter Chiarelli’s greatest mistake.
Flames
This deal doesn’t make too much sense for the Flames. Lucic is a worse player than Neal. Though the former did outproduce the latter last season, it’s worth noting the latter played in 63 games while the former played in 79 games.
Lucic is the more expensive player as well. Calgary would have been wiser to gamble on Neal bouncing back than Lucic bouncing back. Neal is coming off one down year. Lucic has had at least two straight down years. If you consider Lucic’s 2016-17 season was saved by 25 power-play points, you could argue he’s had three straight.
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Worst of all, Lucic is going to be very difficult to get rid of if he doesn’t bounce back. His contract has a lot of signing bonuses, which will make it hard to buy out.
Grade: C-. I don’t know what the Flames were thinking here. There’s very little upside in swapping Neal for Lucic. Even with the retained salary, the conditional pick, and the fact that Lucic is due less money than Neal over the next four seasons, trading for him is baffling.