The Edmonton Oilers could hand the Calgary Flames another loss, more than two months after their season ended

It has been almost two years to the day that the Edmonton Oilers ended the Calgary Flames season in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Since then, there has been an argument to be made that the Oilers broke the Flames and their hopes of competing for the Stanley Cup this decade. 

Since then the Oilers have also had the Flames number in the regular season, where they have gone 5–2–0 over the seven matchups in two seasons. Wherever the Oilers can hand the Flames another L, they find a way to do so.

That is why, even amid the highly entertaining Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars, the Oilers can still find another way to hand their provincial rivals a loss on top of one they already delivered earlier in the postseason.

Let us explain: 

Conditional picks galore

The Flames made a number of massive trades at the NHL Trade Deadline, offloading key players to Stanley Cup contenders. Two of those deals ended up having direct connections to the Oilers.

The first was the Elias Lindholm trade where the Flames moved him to the Vancouver Canucks for Andrei Kuzmenko, prospect Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo, a first-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and a conditional fourth-rounder in the 2024 NHL Draft. That last piece in the deal had a condition where if the Vancouver Canucks made the Western Conference Final, the pick would upgrade to a third-round selection. 

Thanks to the Oilers’ amazing comeback after being down 3–2 in the series, they denied the Flames the upgraded pick. That is loss number one. 

The second trade was that of Chris Tanev to the Dallas Stars. The deal was Tanev in exchange for a 2024 second-round pick in 2024, defensive prospect Artem Grushnikov, and a conditional 2026 third-round pick. That condition ended up being that if the Stars make the Stanley Cup Final, the pick would be included in the deal. If the Stars fail to make the Final, then that pick remains with the Stars. 

With the series at 3–2 for Edmonton, the Oilers have the opportunity to not only make the Stanley Cup Final if they win the series, but also to add more insult to injury against the Flames by denying them an additional pick. 

Add in the fact that the Flames wasted the conditional draft pick they were gifted as part of the James Neal-Milan Lucic swap a few seasons ago, this would just be more hilarious fuel to the fire in the Battle of Alberta rivalry.

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Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire