After July 1st 2020 (or whenever Lucic's 3MM bonus is due), Lucic is only due 10MM is actual cash over the last 3 years of his contract (3.33MM/year).
With the Oilers retaining 12.5%, that's 8.75MM over 3 years or 2.91MM/year for 3.
For a low budget team, this is palatable since they don't care too much about the cap hit. This means that the Flames pay 5.25MM in real dollars for Lucic's services for 1 year if they manage to trade him next offseason.
They can retain a bit more to lessen the sweetener required, but it's not impossible. I'd argue that minus the NMC, it's a much easier contract to move over Neal's (barring a bounce back miracle).
Every season thereafter, Lucic's deal becomes more palatable (and the protection on his NMC, NTC becomes less restricted). As long as he waives his NMC for the expansion draft 2 years from now, it's not horrible.
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