Bruins Signing Elias Lindholm Proving a Costly Mistake – The Hockey Writers Bruins Transactions Latest News, Analysis & More

With six games remaining between now and the Trade Deadline, it’s hard to argue that the Boston Bruins are legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. This is especially true with Hampus Lindholm unlikely to return this season due to injury. While there was hope that this team would show some signs of life and provide general manager Don Sweeney reasons to invest in the short-term future of the club, this simply hasn’t happened.

Despite the front office making major offseason investments, including Elias Lindholm, the moves haven’t paid off—an outcome that, unfortunately, seemed inevitable. These are some excerpts from previous articles anticipating a Lindholm deal and explaining why it would be ill-advised.

The first from May:

“Lindholm has shown in the past that he can be a very good center in the NHL, but the contract he commands may not be in line with the consistent production he’s capable of providing, especially after a disappointing 2023-24 season in which he scored just 15 goals and 44 points in 75 games.”

The second from June:

“As for Lindholm, who will also turn 30 next season, the Bruins need a clear-cut No. 1 and Lindholm is coming off of a down season. Giving out a long-term, big-money deal to a player who may have already shown signs of slowing down just sounds like a recipe for disaster.”

This season, Lindholm has 11 goals and 30 points in 58 games. Over the course of an 82-game season, he’d be on pace for 15 goals and 42 points, similar totals to his 15 goals and 44 points split between the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks last season. For those keeping score at home, Lindholm was signed to replace either Charlie Coyle or Pavel Zacha as a top-six center option. Last season, Coyle scored 25 goals and 60 points while Zacha scored 21 goals and 59 points.

Lindholm’s Trending in the Wrong Direction

It’s hard to fully fault the front office given their need to make moves this offseason, but it’s also hard to give them the benefit of the doubt when they swung for the fences on a player who had already started to show signs of decline. Currently, Lindholm is struggling to justify his $7.75 million annual price tag through his age-36 season. Given his recent trends, it’s fair to question whether that will change as he ages.

Lindholm wasn’t expected to come in and immediately be an offensive force for the Bruins. Despite scoring 42 goals and 82 points in the 2021-22 season with the Flames, his decline over the next two seasons, down to 22 goals and 64 points in 2022-23 and then his aforementioned 15 goals and 44 points in 2023-24, made it hard to rely on a bounce-back effort. Defensively, Lindholm’s impact hasn’t been as strong as it was in previous seasons. An example of this is that, for his career, Lindholm has never had fewer recorded takeaways than giveaways. This season, not only does Lindholm have more giveaways than takeaways, he’s actually turning the puck over twice as often as he’s taking it away, with 32 giveaways to just 16 takeaways.

Related: 7 Worst Trades in Boston Bruins History

In general, Lindholm’s addition to the Bruins hasn’t been a bad one. If he was signed to join the team as a middle-six forward who could contribute on special teams on an affordable contract, it wouldn’t be considered the worst move in the world. With that being said, an affordable contract for a player providing Lindholm’s contributions would probably be somewhere in the range of half of his current deal.

If the Bruins are destined for a rebuild, they’ll almost certainly have to frame it as an on-the-fly retool given some of the big contracts already in place. Lindholm is likely going to be with the Bruins for the long haul and though the salary cap does appear to be trending upwards, this contract still looks like it’s going to age poorly.