Vancouver forward Elias Lindholm is set to become a pending unrestricted free agent on July, 1st, but the Canucks are trying to avoid him hitting the market.
On Friday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Canucks’ management is believed to have made an offer to Lindholm in order to keep him on the roster. This is what the insider explained on the 32 Thoughts podcast with Jeff Marek:
“A couple of weeks ago on the pod, during the playoffs, we talked about the recruiting efforts from the Canucks players were pretty intense. ‘You gotta stay, you gotta stay, you gotta find a way to stay.’ I still think that’s going on,” Friedman speculated. “This is my guess: I think the Canucks are willing to go in the 7×7 range; I’m just not sure it’s going to get it done. I think the Canucks want this player.”
It’s been tough and go for Lindholm in Vancouver ever since he was traded there by the Calgary Flames in return for the Cancuks’ 2024 first and fourth-round picks, Andrei Kuzmenko, along with defensive prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo. At some point, there were even talks of Lindholm being traded again closer to the March 8 deadline, though he did stay put in Vancouver.
But will it be the case as the summer unfolds?
The Canucks also have to focus on pending free agent defenseman Nikita Zadorov when it comes to handing out new deals. With reports that the Russian blue liner is seeking as much as $6 million per season on a five or six year deal, it looks like the Canucks will be too tight money wise for both pending free agents if they do go through with the reported offer for Lindholm.
“I see those three guys as flexible players; you can move them around. You can play [Elias] Pettersson, [JT] Miller, Lindholm all down the middle. But you can move them to the wing; you can move them around,” Friedman said. “Look how good Vancouver looked with those three guys in their lineup. If I have to stretch my dollars a little bit to keep those three guys in my lineup, I’ll do it.”
“I don’t want to speak for Lindholm, but I heard as tough as it started in Vancouver, I heard he really liked it there,” Friedman added.
