Hours before the best owner in Boston sports, Wyc Grousbeck, announced his family would be selling the Boston Celtics, often falsely maligned Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs opened up the checkbook as if to say, “Hey fans, don’t forget about the Black-and-Gold.”
On the first day of NHL free agency Monday, the Bruins landed arguably the best center on the market in Elias Lindholm with a seven-year, $54.25 million deal. In terms of salary cap hit ($7.75 million per year), it is the richest deal the franchise ever handed to a new player and Lindholm is now Boston’s third-highest paid behind David Pastrnak and defenseman Charlie McAvoy.
This is a home run acquisition.
Boston badly needed a number one center and the 29-year-old Lindholm fills the role perfectly. He’s a highly respected two-way player only two years removed from a 42-goal season in which he earned Selke Trophy votes.
Remember how badly Stanley Cup champion Florida killed the Bruins on the faceoffs in this year’s Eastern Conference playoffs? Lindholm won 56 percent of his draws last season and is 54 percent in the dot in his career. Check off another important box for the newest Bruin.
“I don’t want to compare myself to Patrice Bergeron, but I can bring a little bit of what he did,” Lindholm said. “You look at the series against Florida and (Boston is) pretty much right there. They have a lot of good pieces that will allow me to come in and play my game, help them take the next step and achieve what everyone wants to achieve.”
After Bergeron and David Krejci retired, the Bruins tried to build from the wings. Good hockey clubs are built down the middle, however, and Lindholm is a foundational piece that will allow pivots Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha to slot down the lineup where they belong. Not unlike a pitching rotation, you want the No. 2 and 3 guys in the No. 2 and 3 spots.
“As soon as Boston came into the picture, it was an easy decision for me,” Lindholm said.
Though the Bruins were linked to Lindholm in trade talks over the last few seasons, all this transaction cost was money; kudos to the Jacobs’ family for shelling it out (as they have every offseason since the cap came to be in 2005).
Plus, if the last few years of Lindholm’s deal are shaky, then hopefully by then the team has developed young supplemental centers with the draft choices they saved by not trading for him.
Boston followed up the blockbuster Lindholm deal by reeling in hulking defenseman Nikita Zadorov. At 6-foot-6, 247 pounds, he’s a shutdown monster who’ll be getting $5 million for the next six seasons.
If the two singings reminded you of when Boston snagged Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara on July 1, 2006, you’re not alone.
If the Lindholm signing receives an A, Zadorov’s might be graded as a B or B-minus. The Bruins got bigger and tougher on the back end, a definite need. But they’re now paying four defensemen in excess of $4 million annually, something that might not be sustainable under the salary cap (none of this year’s conference finalists had that many high cost defensemen).
For all Zadorov’s strengths, he doesn’t bring much offensively and doesn’t play on the power play. That means Boston is depending on McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm, each dismal on the man advantage last spring, to regain their 2022-23 form in generating assists. That’s a bit of a gamble, though highly touted prospect Mason Lohrei may yet be the answer.
Last week’s Linus Ullmark trade was a fail in cap management. In taking back Joonas Korpisalo to backup Jeremy Swayman at $3 million a year, the Bruins have hamstrung themselves financially.
Most assume Swayman will be getting a new deal in the $7-8 million range soon. That means the Bruins would be spending $10-11 annually on goaltending. Of this year’s 16 playoff teams, only Florida and Tampa allocated more than $10 million to goalies … not a winning formula. If the plan was to spend that much, why not keep Ullmark for the final year of his contract rather than be stuck with Korpisalo for three additional seasons?
So there remains some tweaking to be done both in net and in the bottom six forward group. On paper, though, the Bruins are better now than they were when they were eliminated by the Panthers on May 17.
All it cost was money and the owner and GM should be commended for ponying up.
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