One month ago, the Vancouver Canucks acquired forward Elias Lindholm from the Calgary Flames in a trade to bolster the organization’s top-six.
Now, it appears that Lindholm’s days in Vancouver may be numbered, as Chris Johnston of TSN is reporting that the Canucks have spoken with the Boston Bruins about flipping Lindholm in order to acquire Jake Guentzel from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In theory, a trade could work between the three teams, but there will undoubtedly be a lot of moving parts in any trade of this magnitude. Hypothetically, the Bruins could send a package of Jake DeBrusk and John Beecher to the Penguins, with the Canucks sending Vasily Podkolzin to Pittsburgh as well.
Before this year started, the Bruins were heavily rumored to be a team looking for center help after watching Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retire in the offseason. Nevertheless, the team opted to utilize Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle as their one-two punch down the middle. Both players have handled the pressure well, with Coyle now six points away from a career-high in a single season.
It is interesting to see Lindholm’s name pop back up in trade rumors, as they surrounded him for nearly a year in Calgary. In 14 games with the Canucks since the trade in late January, Lindholm has scored two goals and six points overall coupled with a 58.1% faceoff percentage.
Ultimately, the team may prefer to add more offense to their wings, instead of employing Lindholm in a third-line role down the middle.
In the hunt for their third President’s Trophy victory in franchise history, the Canucks are seemingly doing everything they can to create a Stanley Cup-caliber team.
Infamously, even with the organization now being 53 years old, Vancouver has lost all three Stanley Cup Final appearances in team history.
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