NHL rules Oilers owe 3rd-round pick to Flames from Neal-Lucic deal

The Edmonton Oilers will have to surrender a third-round pick to the Calgary Flames after all.

The NHL ruled the Oilers must transfer either their 2020 or 2021 third-rounder to Calgary to complete last summer's James Neal-Milan Lucic deal, the Flames announced Friday.

Edmonton will have until the third round of the 2020 draft to make its decision.

The forwards were swapped last July, and the condition attached to Edmonton's third-round pick was that it would only transfer if Neal, whom the Oilers received, scored at least 21 goals in 2019-20 and Lucic finished with at least 10 fewer markers than his counterpart.

Those conditions were extremely close to being met when the season was paused March 12; Neal scored 19 goals and Lucic had eight.

Neal potted all 19 of his goals in the first 42 games of the season before missing a month due to a foot injury. Lucic collected four over his last 15 contests, including two in his last four.

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