By: Tom Calautti | @TCalauttis
Elias Lindholm’s tenure with the Boston Bruins didn’t get off to the best of starts. Expectations were high for the former fifth overall pick after he signed a seven-year, $54.25 million contract in the summer of 2024. Unfortunately for him and the Bruins, things started to unravel quickly.
Lindholm arrived on the first day of training camp with a clearly-defined role: anchor the first line alongside the Czech duo of David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha, add a boost to an ailing power play, and provide a strong defensive presence down the middle. Those dreams were dashed early in camp when Boston’s proverbial ‘big fish’ skated for just one practice before being sidelined with an injury and missing the rest of camp.
“Yeah for myself, tough season, and just didn’t get off the great start with the injury and stuff, and kind of was chasing it for a long time,” lamented Lindholm following the 2024-25 season. “And yeah, it was just snowballing from there. And yeah, it was not great.”
Lindholm finished his first season in Black and Gold with 17-30-47 across 82 games. He skated more than 20 minutes of ice time with eight different line combinations. Long story short, things didn’t work out in year one.
“Elias got off to a slower start this year. I think he missed some time in training camp and getting himself acclimated at camp,” lamented General Manager Don Sweeney in his 2025 post-mortem press conference. “I think he was dealing with an off-season injury, which started him off a little bit slower, too.”
The one bit of good news was that Lindholm showed flashes of a turnaround in the spring of 2025. Interim head coach Joe Sacco began skating him between then-emerging scorer Morgan Geekie and Pastrnak, a move that paid hefty dividends.
In 71 minutes of ice time together, that trio would go on to out-attempt opponents 81-69, outshoot them 42-29, outchance them 45-29, and outscore them 15-2.
“For myself, it was something to kind of put in (my) back pocket and build off and try to improve this summer,” said Lindholm of his time with his new linemates. “(Next season I’ll) hopefully have a better camp, be healthy, and start off kind of where I where I left, and help this team to play next year.”
Fast forward to the fall of 2025, and things started to look completely different. Lindholm was able to participate in the entirety of training camp under first-time head coach Marco Sturm, develop chemistry with his two opening-night linemates, and hone his power-play abilities under new assistant coach Steve Spott.
The results spoke for themselves.
In his second year in Boston, Elias Lindholm has suited up for 25 games and posted 5-17-22. Those numbers trail only Pastrnak, Geekie, and Zacha (all of whom have played at least five additional games) for the team lead in points.
It took the 2025-26 iteration of the Boston Bruins a while to find their footing as a group, but Lindholm had no problem putting the past behind him. Through the team’s first 13 contests, Lindholm notched 4-5-9. That put him on pace for approximately 57 points across 82 games.
Then came the injury bug, something that’s seemingly haunted the Bruins up and down the lineup the entirety of this season. During an October 30 contest, Lindholm collided with Buffalo big man Jordan Greenway and suffered a lower-body injury. The 31-year-old missed almost a month with said injury before returning to the lineup just before Thanksgiving.
Since then, he’s been one of the most efficient scorers in the entire league.
Lindholm made his return to the ice on November 23. Since then, he has skated in all 12 of Boston’s games and registered 1-12-13 (and is +3), good enough for a point per game scoring pace. In that time period, Lindholm is tied for 25th in the league in points (13), tied for seventh in assists (12), and tied for fifth in even-strength assists (eight) behind only Nikita Kucherov, Martin Necas, Macklin Celebrini, and Kyle Connor.
The Bruins were confident they would get this kind of production from Lindholm at some point; they just needed to find the right combination of factors to bring it out of him. Nikita Zadorov has spent the majority of his career alongside the two-way center, and he knew early on what it would take for him to succeed.
“He’s not a flashy guy, but I think he does everything right,” said Zadorov of Lindholm. “So people love the players who play the right way all the time. You know he’s not going to cheat for offense because he doesn’t want to give up something defensively, you know, like I said, he complements his wingers really well, so if you put him in the right situation to succeed, he’s gonna be unbelievable for sure.”
The Black and Gold are almost halfway through the 2025-26 schedule, and they find themselves in a position very few expected. The team is right in the thick of the playoff race and competing night in and night out to live up to their ‘tough to play against’ moniker.
The resurgence of Elias Lindholm has been critical to Boston’s success, and if he can continue to put points on the board, this team may be destined for the postseason.
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