After a season where the Bruins were forced into doing the best they could with what they had at the center position following the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, it’s going to be a much different story this upcoming season.
He might not have been the flashiest option, and he certainly isn’t coming in hot off his most productive NHL season by any stretch, but the Bruins addressed the middle by signing the best available free agent center, Elias Lindholm, to a seven-year, $54.25-million contract at the outset of free agency on July 1.
The 29-year-old Lindholm isn’t going to be Bergeron, of course, but he is the kind of two-way, 200-foot center who's going to bring some of the qualities that perhaps Bruins fans took a little bit for granted when No. 37 was here for almost 20 years.
“As soon as Boston came in [and showed interest] it was exciting and me and my family were pumped. Yeah, I think it's a good fit,” admitted Lindholm after signing the contract. “Honestly, you know, playing in the league for a long time and kind of trying to look at Bergeron as much as possible.
“I don't want to compare myself or anything like that, but I think I can bring a little bit of what he did. I obviously try to come here and bring my game and come back to the player I know I can be, and hopefully help this team to achieve the Stanley Cup.”
Most importantly Lindholm is a right-shot center who will take important faceoffs, kill penalties and probably get the first look at the bumper spot on the power play that Bergeron mastered over the years. That’s a big-time presence they were missing at times last season while Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha did their level best as top-6 centers, and one that should be a massive difference-maker for the Black and Gold this time around.
The one big question is just how impactful Lindholm can be offensively after struggling last season between the Flames and Canucks with 15 goals and 44 points in 75 games with a minus-14 rating. He openly admitted it was a difficult season with the uncertainty pretty much knowing he was going to get traded by Calgary, followed by a new situation in Vancouver where he finished with a flourish in the playoffs with the Canucks.
And his best NHL season in Calgary was with Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk manning his wings when he topped 40 goals and 80 points in 2021-22. The Bruins are certainly hoping that a line pairing wingers David Pastrnak and Zacha with Lindholm can bring out the same kind of offensive production upsurge for a player who can always be relied on to play a solid two-way game at the center spot.
“We had a pretty good team in Calgary my first year and then he was a big part of it for sure. He had unbelievable wingers, and they put up the show, they’re probably the best line in the league at that time,” said Nikita Zadorov, who has now played with Lindholm for Calgary, Vancouver and Boston. “He came into the Canucks this year at the deadline in a little bit different role for him, for sure. We had a pretty good depth in the centermen, so he had to play a little bit less minutes than they expected, but he can just show that he can do everything. [Penalty kill], first power play, he’s a first line centerman, he’s gonna compliment his wingers, he’s an unbelievable teammate, he's the guy who's gonna go out there and compete every night, and he wants to win as much as I want [to win].”
One fair question is what this contract might look like in its final few years when a 35 or 36-year-old Lindholm is rounding out his NHL career, but there will be value even if he’s playing down lower in the lineup. The Swede certainly plays like a pivot that could very well transition into a third line center role at some point down the line. It’s similar to what he had to this past season when playing for a deep, talented Canucks crew after the trade deadline, but for now he’s going to be a top guy for the Black and Gold while pushing Coyle into a second-line center role.
That should give the Bruins the kind of center depth they lacked last season and another player that will help them lock down those third period leads that they oft-timed frittered away last season.
“Way back in the [2013 NHL] Draft, we identified Elias [Lindholm] as a player that has a lot of [Patrice] Bergeron qualities. Kudos to our scouting staff for following these guys and watching the growth of Zadorov and also acknowledging where Elias [Lindholm] remains in his career and bringing the attributes he does,” said Don Sweeney. “It’s kind of been a two-year pursuit to tell you the truth, wondering maybe down the road, if he would ever get to free agency.
“[We] had chances at the deadline to maybe get in there, but it didn’t necessarily materialize, so when [a free agent signing of Lindholm] was presented we were very happy.”
That’s one thing to glean from the Lindholm signing as a core member of this Bruins team for the foreseeable future. There isn’t a lot of mystery to the veteran players that the B’s are interested in either as trade targets or free agent candidates, as their interest in players like Lindholm is usually well-documented before they finally get them into the fold as they did with him in free agency earlier this month.
In this case, they were able to wait until free agency and simply pay the monetary cost of a contract for a desired player they longed for organizationally rather than overspend in trade with draft picks, prospects and other assets. That may be a blueprint for future impact players that the Bruins are looking to add to their group, but it could all depend on how things work out with Lindholm after investing significantly in the Swedish center as an answer to last season’s center problems for the Black and Gold.
Time will tell if this major free agent investment pays off like they hope it will as Lindholm could be a missing piece that ties everything together for a B’s team that sorely needed a frontline center last season.