REPORT: Oilers Close to Acquiring James Neal From Flames for Milan Lucic
By Parker White
The Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames seem to be swapping a couple of left wingers to spice things up.
According to Gene Principe of Sportsnet, the Oilers are close to finalizing a deal where they'd acquire James Neal and send Milan Lucic to the Flames.
I don’t think you are wrong https://t.co/a1E6i2Goxn
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) July 19, 2019
The players involved appear to be all but a done deal. What's holding this up from being complete are draft picks and salary.
Can confirm deal to send James Neal to Edm for Milan Lucic isn’t done yet, but is close. Oilers would include a conditional draft pick and retain some of Lucic’s salary when its completed
— Eric Francis (@EricFrancis) July 19, 2019
Oddly enough, Neal and Lucic provided similar statistics for their respective teams last year.
James Neal & Milan Lucic in 2018-19:
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) July 19, 2019
Neal - 63 GP, 7 G, 12 A, 19 PTS, -5, 2 PPG & 141 SOG
Lucic - 79 GP, 6 G, 14 A, 20 PTS, -9, 2 PPG & 74 SOG
In 63 games in his lone year in Calgary, Neal tallied seven goals and 12 assists with a -5 plus/minus. Neal had one of his worst years, as he had only a 5% shooting percentage, but he did win just over 45 percent of his faceoffs.
Lucic played in 79 games for the Oilers a year ago and tallied only six goals and 14 assists with a -9 plus/minus. He did improve his shooting percentage from the previous year at 8.1% and won just over 55% of his faceoffs.