Boston gets blue-liner Lindholm from Ducks
Don Sweeney has fished the same Duck pond before, and this time he landed a big one.
The Bruins’ GM landed the top-four leftshot defenseman he’s been going after since the annual trade deadline frenzy began, obtaining 6-foot-4, 215-pound blueliner Hampus Lindholm from the Anaheim Ducks.
The Bruins gave up their first-round pick in 2022, second-round picks in 2023 and 2024, plus defensemen Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore. Also coming back to Boston is 32-yearold minor league defenseman Kodie Curran.
The Ducks will be retaining 50% of Lindholm’s $5.2 million salary. He is an unrestricted free agent. No extension has been announced for Lindholm, though that would be quite a haul for a pure rental. Still, the Bruins were able to hold on to their two top prospects — left defenseman Mason Lohrei, their 2020 second-round pick at Ohio State, and flashy forward Fabian Lysell, their 2021 first-rounder playing for the Vancouver Giants. They’ve also hung onto center Jack Studnicka.
Sweeney will meet reporters on Sunday. Lindholm, 28, a defensive-minded defenseman, has 5-17—22 totals and is an even player while averaging 22:32 of ice time for the Ducks in 61 games. He’s averaging 2:01 on the penalty kill. Some of his analytics have not been as strong as in past years (his 48.2% Corsi is down from his career average of 51.6%), but he’s been playing with 19-year-old defenseman Jamie Drysdale. And as promising as Drysdale may be, Lindholm won’t have to do any such mentoring in Boston.
Lindholm should also help in late-game, lead-protection situations, which have been a bugaboo for the B’s in recent weeks.
Coach Bruce Cassidy could pair the Swede with Charlie McAvoy to make a formidable first pair, or he could move Matt Grzelcyk up to play with McAvoy and create a shutdown pairing with Lindholm and Brandon Carlo.
Who gets pushed out of the lineup most likely comes down to Mike Reilly, who has been skating with McAvoy in recent weeks, or Derek Forbort. It had been hoped that Forbort could be the stout defensive presence to play with McAvoy, but Forbort has played mostly on a third pair with Connor Clifton.