Lindholm playing better would make most impact for Bruins rest of season originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The 2025 NHL trade deadline is less than two weeks away, and we still don’t know what path the Boston Bruins will take.
The smartest path would be to sell and move a few veterans and/or upcoming free agents who might not fit into the team’s long-term plans. Then again, the B’s — despite a very disappointing season so far — remain only one point out of a wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference standings.
Regardless of what moves general manager Don Sweeney ends up making (or not making), the best way for the Bruins to finish the regular season strong isn’t external additions, it’s internal improvement.
And perhaps no player has more room for improvement than Elias Lindholm.
The Bruins signed Lindholm to a lucrative seven-year, $54.25 million contract on Day 1 of free agency last July. The Swedish center was expected to be a Patrice Bergeron-like two-way forward who could excel in all situations, although not quite to the level of the former B’s captain, of course.
The Bruins hoped that his declining offensive production in recent seasons, and last year in particular, was just a blip and would reverse. Unfortunately for the Bruins, Lindholm has failed to play at the level of a top-six center. Instead, they have a player making $7.75 million per year performing like a No. 3 center. It’s a real problem for the short and long term future of the franchise.
“Well, Elias got off to a slower start, started really in training camp where he wasn’t 100 percent healthy, didn’t find the continuity with a couple different linemates, but has settled in and done a good job overall of being a bit more of a matchup,” Sweeney said at a press conference Sunday. “It frees up Pavel (Zacha) and David (Pastrnak) to be a little bit more offensively tilted in zone starts and such. So, it’s going to show up in your production. It shows up in everybody’s when you’re in the matchup role and you’re getting more defensive zone starts and again, even playing Matty Poitras in that same sense, you’ve got to toggle in terms of where the players are going to play. And Elias has done a good job there.
“Penalty killing-wise, is as advertised. Our power play overall hasn’t been very effective. It’s not just on one man. So ultimately, it’s on the five-man units to continue to improve. And you know, he’s taken ownership, to his credit, he’s taken ownership that he hasn’t had the overall year that he’d like to, I think he’s had an uptick, you know, in terms of how his play has been. And we expect more. So, you know, it’s a mutual disappointment at this point from the standpoint of how he would like to perform. But he’s not going to stop trying, improving, and acclimating to our roster, and getting better. And you know, he’s on that, and it’s good on him.”
From an offensive standpoint, Lindholm is on pace to tally 42.4 points, just below the 44 he scored between the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks last season. In other words, he’s on pace to see his scoring decline for the third straight campaign.
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Expecting Lindholm to be a point-per-game player like in 2021-22 would have been unfair. But what about 60 to 70 points, in addition to Selke Trophy-caliber defense?
That was a realistic expectation, and from a scoring perspective, the veteran center has fallen way short so far.
Lindholm has been a little more productive offensively of late, with six points (three goals, three assists) in his last seven games, including a goal in Saturday’s overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks at TD Garden. Is it a sign of a turnaround or merely a nice run that will soon fizzle? For the Bruins, it better be the former.
The Bruins rank 24th among 32 NHL teams in goals scored with 2.47 per game. Boston’s power play ranks 30th with a 14.8 percent success rate. The B’s rank 24th with 27.2 shots on net per game. The Bruins have not been a potent or consistent offensive team all season, and that’s a problem because they aren’t playing elite defense or getting Vezina-level goaltending anymore — which was often the case in recent seasons.
If the Bruins are going to finish the campaign strong and make the playoffs, the offense will need to be much better. One player who can have a massive impact on that imrovement is Lindhom, both as a goal scorer and playmaker. Lindholm has the ability to elevate his linemates, but you wouldn’t know by his 1.02 assists per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 action this season, which is the lowest rate of his career, per Natural Stat Trick. Someone needs to step up so David Pastrnak doesn’t shoulder the large majority of the scoring burden.
The Bruins didn’t prepare very well for the post-Bergeron and post-David Krejci era at center. They haven’t been able to draft and develop a suitable replacement, so they had to spend huge money in free agency to acquire Lindholm. Without a ton of salary cap space this summer and a lack of Grade A trade assets, the Bruins could find it difficult to get a top-six center to do the job Lindholm has failed to do thus far.
Therefore, it’s important for the Bruins that Lindholm plays to the level of his contract. He doesn’t need to be Bergeron. He doesn’t need to be elite offensively. But he can’t be producing below 50 points in a full season. That’s not good enough.
It’ll be fascinating to see what the Bruins do at the trade deadline. But the action that would have the most significant impact would be veterans such as Lindholm playing much better. He’s capable of it. Now he just needs to show it.
