‘Patrice-Like’: Why Bruins Made Major Elias Lindholm Investment

The Bruins have long been a not-so-secret admirer of Elias Lindholm. Given the chance to finally shoot their shot, they weren’t going to miss.

Boston’s offseason spending spree was focused around the Swedish center. The Bruins forked over a whopping $54.25 million to be paid out over the next seven years.

Their hope? Lindholm becomes the latest in a line of difference-making, two-way centers that anchor a Bruins team in all three zones.

B’s fans will get their first look at Lindholm on Tuesday night in Florida, a fitting place for his Black and Gold career to begin. No team has prompted more difficult discussions in the Bruins’ building over the last two seasons. The division rivals have made it a rite of spring to send the B’s packing. The most recent conquering proved to be a speed bump on the way to Florida’s first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Trying to bridge that gap made Lindholm attractive to the B’s, even if this story ultimately begins in 2013. In the run-up to that draft, Sweeney said they were smitten with Lindholm, a player they believed had similar characteristics to Patrice Bergeron. They weren’t alone. The Hurricanes drafted Lindholm with the No. 5 pick in the draft — 55 selections before the Bruins made their first choice.

Three times throughout his career he has finished in the top 10 of Selke Trophy voting. That includes 2021-22 in Calgary when he was the runner-up … to Bergeron.

As the 2024 trade deadline approached, the Bruins’ rumored interest in trading for Lindholm wasn’t surprising, especially in hindsight.

“It’s kind of been a two-year pursuit to tell you the truth, wondering maybe down the road, if he would ever get to free agency,” Sweeney admitted on Day 1 of free agency after finally reeling in his big fish. “Had chances at the deadline to maybe get in there, but it didn’t necessarily materialize, so when this was presented we were very happy.”

A quick look at Lindholm’s hockey card might not totally explain the desire to land the soon-to-be 30-year-old. He scored just 15 goals last season with 29 assists. His minus-14 rating was his worst in the last eight seasons. But similar to Bergeron, or even David Krejci, a lot of Lindholm’s value is tied to things that can’t be quantified.

Given the opportunity and need to reflect on their roster, the Bruins determined they lacked depth at the center position, a predictable conclusion one year after both Bergeron and Krejci retired. Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha exceeded expectations in their stead, but they weren’t going to match their predecessors. Lindholm might not fill those voids, either, but his all-around game will make it easier for everyone around him to realize their potential.

Lindholm was just one of three forwards in the NHL last season to log more than 200 minutes of power-play time and more than 170 minutes of short-handed time. Take that a step further. There have been 86 forwards to log at least 7,000 minutes since the start of 2018. Lindholm is one of just three forwards who average two minutes of power-play and two minutes of short-handed time per game over that span.

“His 200-foot game is remarkable,” Bruins president Cam Neely said at a press conference on Sept. 30. “I mean, I don’t want to put him (in) the Patrice category, but he’s, you know, Patrice-like.”

Like Bergeron, the hope is Lindholm can lighten the load for everyone else. His under-the-radar skills should make those around him better. His skill set makes him an amorphous power-play asset. He’ll thrive in either the bumper or the flank. Montgomery talked about his faceoff prowess improving the power play, but it should lead to more possession up and down the ice regardless of situation. Just use last year as an example. Only seven players in the NHL took more draws than Charlie Coyle. The veteran won 51.6% of those faceoffs, a fine enough rate.

Now, though, a lot of those faceoffs will be given to Lindholm (who took more than 1,300 draws last season). Lindholm won 57.2% of his draws last season. If you had just given Coyle’s faceoff workload to Lindholm, and he had won the same rate, he would have won 64 more faceoffs than Coyle. That might not seem like a big number, but that’s 64 more possessions to either keep the puck in the attacking zone and set up the offense or to clear the puck from danger in the defensive zone.

His 200-foot game is remarkable. … He’s, you know, Patrice-like.

Cam Neely

Lindholm’s critics will argue his production doesn’t justify the contract. They’ll argue he hasn’t been the same player since 2021-22 when he scored a career-high 42 goals when he was flanked by Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk.

It’s easy to draw a straight line from having those linemates to increased production, but in doing that, it’s important to point out he’ll center Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak on Boston’s top line. Only Auston Matthews has scored more goals (109) over the last two seasons than Pastrnak (108). Zacha is coming off a career-high in points. It’s more than fair to assume Lindholm’s production will see a major uptick, assuming everyone stays healthy.

The Bruins needed to get better this summer, and Lindholm should help them do that. Even mentioning him in the same breath as Bergeron is lofty, but they clearly believe he’s the man for the job.