Pending unrestricted free agent center Elias Lindholm hasn’t ruled out the possibility of signing an extension with the Calgary Flames, but a trade before the March 8 deadline remains the most likely scenario, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and TSN wrote in a column Friday morning.
The future of the Flames’ many high-end class of 2024 unrestricted free agents has been a central talking point ever since last season drew to a close. They’ve already made decisions on three of them. Last season’s leading point-getter Tyler Toffoli was traded to the Devils over the summer, 16-year veteran Mikael Backlund was given a two-year, $9MM extension and the captaincy, and shutdown defenseman Nikita Zadorov was dealt to the Canucks last month. A handful of essential players remain without contracts past this season, none more so than Lindholm.
LeBrun says the Flames “haven’t definitely told Lindholm they’re planning to move him,” but that hasn’t stopped interest from growing around the league. He explicitly names three squads as likely landing spots – the Bruins, Avalanche and Hurricanes – with the Bruins confirmed to “have some level of interest” based on his reporting. He did not confirm the Avalanche have acquired specifically about Lindholm but does believe their cap-clearing move of trading winger Tomáš Tatar to the Kraken earlier this month helps open the door for them to add a big name to their top-six forward group.
The Hurricanes are not confirmed to have any level of interest. While a fit makes sense, LeBrun rightly points out Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon’s historical unwillingness to spend assets on rental players could complicate a move. Lindholm, Carolina’s 2013 fifth-overall pick, has already had extension talks fall through with the club once, resulting in his 2018 trade to Calgary.
Both the Bruins and Avalanche have an obvious need for a top-six center. Boston has received admirable performances from Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle, who anchor their top two lines (with rookie Matthew Poitras behind them). Still, neither player has a long enough track record of shouldering top-six minutes at an above-average level long enough for the comfort of a contender. Lindholm more directly fills the gigantic shutdown center void left by the retirement of former captain Patrice Bergeron last summer, as pointed out numerous times since the Lindholm trade rumor mill began to spin a few months ago.
Boston has been plagued by a thin prospect pipeline and rocky future for seasons on end now, although they’ve seemingly come back from near-dead numerous times to remain in the league’s contending class. They can’t keep that up forever, though, and acquiring Lindholm would require parting with one of the few high-value assets they have left in their system. Short-term salary cap management is also prohibitive, as the Bruins have $26MM in cap space to allocate over nine open roster spots next season. Lindholm could quickly swallow up at least 30 percent of that space.
The Avalanche have a more pressing need on their second line. They took a flyer on 31-year-old Ryan Johansen over the summer, acquiring him at half-salary retention from the Predators, making him a $4MM player through 2025. Ideally, Johansen could rebound in a new system to the 50-60 point pace he posted during his prime with the Blue Jackets and Predators in the 2010s, but it hasn’t panned out. He ranks fourth on the team with ten goals through 33 games, but he’s recorded just two assists – giving him 12 points, a 0.36 point per game pace, and ice time that’s dipped below the 15-minute-per-game mark. None of those metrics are representative of an average second-line center, let alone one adequate enough to help the Avalanche capture their second Stanley Cup in three years.
Nathan MacKinnon can do (and has done) most of the heavy lifting, but Lindholm would be an immeasurable boost to their forward group. He’s on pace for 57 points this season, not breaking the bank by any metric, and is having the worst possession season of his career with a 47.6% Corsi share at even strength. Lindholm is turning things around, though, still routinely averaging over 20 minutes per game and posting a goal and five assists in his last five games. He would plug the hole that’s been vacant in Colorado since Nazem Kadri departed the team (ironically for Calgary) in free agency after his career-best season was instrumental in helping Colorado win their first Stanley Cup in over 20 years.
In any event, no trade seems imminent. Any potential Lindholm deal is likely to happen much closer to the trade deadline.
On paper the Bruins are an abysmal team with great goaltending and typically good defense, but I don’t know if Sweeney’s play should be to “win now” and mortgage more picks for a guy like Lindholm, or just ride this wave with whoever is in-house and see if they can bridge to a faster re-tooling later.
Are Montgomery’s Bruins the new version of Hitchcock’s Blues?
A very well coached, well structured team that punches above it’s weight all season…all regular season, that is?
Division titles, President’s trophies, Jennings Trophies, but playoff flameouts?
They might well be, BUT…”you play to win the game”. Lindholm is the one center available who might be able to make a difference for them.
Abysmal? Is this a Wilf account or are you competing with him?
To be fair on paper they don’t scream contender…but they certainly are doing something right!
Hate the bruins but maybe a Hanifin, Tanev (half salary retained), Lindholm for Grzelcyk, Carlo, Poitras, Debrusk and 1st in 26 works?? Maybe Swayman added and Vladar goes back to Boston?
So…
Hanafin for a 1st
Tanev Grzelcyk
Linholm Carlo
Vladar Poitras
DeBrusk
Swayman
That’s actually one of the better comment section deals I’ve seen, but remove Carlo and have Hanafin sign an extension as part of the deal and I think it’s close to fair.
NOTE- I had it nicely spaced and easily readable in my post, but it reformats to that unreadable jumble when you hit the button. Not sure why.
It would be a massive trade, and I think all parties would want players they are getting back to sign some sort of extension. It would also allow both teams to remain competitive.
Bruins should send ullmark instead of swayman
I’m not sure if the money would work but Ullmark instead of swayman would still be a fair trade. Maybe CGY moves Markstrom in f they pick up either of the two? I could see Buffalo going after him.
I don’t think Calgary would want ullmark or swayman as both are young good goalies and Wolf is their guy. It’s a seemingly fair trade on paper but I don’t think the flames go for it. They’d want other assets, good young talent or bonafide prospects a-level which the bruins don’t have. As good and surprising as Poitras has been I don’t think he alone is enough to net lindholm.
Let me rephrase that: not that either ullmark or swayman aren’t desirable pieces for they are, but if you have Markstrom and the Next swayman coming up the ranks I think you’d be aiming for high end talent up front to replace the high end talent going out especially when in net they’re relatively solid until Wolf comes up and takes over. My logic anyways.
@66TheNumberOfTheBest — Regarding the formatting, if you feel a little adventurous, you might try enclosing it in HTML. But be prepared to contact the Sysadmin to ask for it to be deleted if it ends up being worse. I inadvertently used some “reserved” characters that messed up a comment once. I may have followed it up with a “my bad” errata. It’s definitely not WYSIWYG here.
Lindholm and Klapka to Canes for Necas and Suzuki… or Drury instead of Suzuki..