Tonight, Chris Johnston and friends are revealing the NHL’s rulings on conditional draft-pick trades that are outstanding. The most contentious was the Milan Lucic - James Neal swap:

This also affects the Sami Vatanen trade to Carolina.

Easy! Of course, the NHL had to get the Leafs involved in this last minute decision. The NHL, who hasn’t been able to decide if the Qualifying Round is the playoffs or not in all cases (see above for one where it isn’t), has decided that yes, indeed it does count for the Campbell-Clifford trade conditions.

The Maple Leafs received Kyle Clifford and Jack Campbell for Trevor Moore, the 2020 third round pick that was originally Columbus’s, and a 2021 conditional third-round pick.

Per Cap Friendly, the original trade conditions read this way:

Conditions: The 2021 3rd round pick upgrades to a 2nd round pick if either Kyle Clifford re-signs with Toronto OR if the Leafs make the 2019-20 playoffs and Jack Campbell wins 6 regular season games.

This is the new formula:

Assuming the and and or are still in the same format, this would mean that the pick becomes a second-round pick if:

Kyle Clifford is re-signed

OR

The Leafs beat Columbus in the Qualifying Round and Jack Campbell gets two more wins.

The second condition is just the price you pay for winning, but the first condition is a choice, and I think we all know that the idea of this small increase in the price for Clifford isn’t popular. But we shouldn’t assume, so you tell me, would you change the pick that will be traded from a third to a second for Clifford?

Would the pick upgrade stop you from re-signing Kyle Clifford?

Yes408
No406
I wouldn’t re-sign him332

Now the harder question: if the pick condition is met by the Leafs beating Columbus and Campbell getting two more wins at some point, would you then go ahead and re-sign Clifford now that there is no price?

Would you re-sign Clifford if the pick is already upgraded?

Yes601
No311