By: Mark Allred | Follow me on Twitter / X @BlackAndGold277
Last season, the Boston Bruins showed organizational patience in addressing the center issues with the retirements of two B’s legends, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. With their absence and limited salary cap space available, the team chose to address the hole up the middle of the roster internally, relying on current and versatile veterans to burden the load. While Bruins forwards Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha filled the gaps during the regular season, amassing 114 points and tying Bergeron and Krejci the year prior, it was their postseason efforts where everyone needed more.
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It was clear an upgrade was needed. At the Boston end-of-year press conference, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said the team would diligently use the available salary cap space for external free-agent additions. On July 1st, the organization didn’t waste any time announcing that the club acquired center Elias Lindholm, a free agent who started last season with the Calgary Flames and finishing the campaign with the Vancouver Canucks. The 29-year-old Sweden native seemed uncomfortable playing in the Western Conference in 2023-24, but the Bruins were confident in his upside as a two-way centerman heading to the East Coast with a fresh start.
So far, Lindholm’s free agent signing and seven-year $7.750 million AAV per season is looking pretty damn good for the Bruins organization as the 6′-1″ 203-pound forward is off to a hot start to begin the 2024-25 National Hockey League regular season. Elias is on a three-game game-point streak to start the year (2-3-5) and has worked well in a short sample size with fellow European forwards Zacha on the left wing and David Pastrnak on the right. His immediate impact has injected vitality into the team, offering many a glimpse of the promising road ahead.
Originally drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Lindholm quickly established himself as a versatile forward known for his strong playmaking abilities and defensive acumen. In 821 career NHL games, the former Swedish Brynas IF standout has spent 12 seasons in the highest league in professional hockey and has 220-343-563 numbers in 821 games.
Lindholm is on pace to have a career season surpassing the 2021-22 campaign, when he was a point-per-game player for the only time in his NHL career, going 42-40-82 in 82 regular-season games. Elias has a 47.4 face-off percentage in three games, so there’s work to be done in this department, but his overall game doesn’t look bad for a new forward with the team. He’s a centerman who can log a good amount of minutes with a career average of 18:30 in his 12-year NHL career.
If the Zacha-Lindholm-Pastrnak trio continues through the season, I could see that line benefiting all three members moving forward. This group could see Lindholm and Zacha having career years offensively, and even Pasrtnak on the right side potentially surpassing the 60-goal mark, a feat he did once back in the 2022-23 regular season when he reached 61.
As mentioned, this is a small sample size of the potential of new Boston Bruins forward Elias Lindholm. It also shows that tracking this player for the last three seasons leading up to his free agent signing was solid work from the B’s organization as a team ready to pounce on the most coveted free agent forward this past summer.
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