It was a busy enough Saturday in the NHL with 11 games on the dockett, but factor in a multitude of pre-trade deadline deals and suddenly the day turned into an outright frenzy of hockey news.
The first salvo featured a blockbuster deal between the Anaheim Ducks and Boston Bruins. Anaheim is sending Hampus Linholm and Kodie Curran to the Bruins in exchange for a 2022 1st round pick, 2023 and 2024 2nd rounders, as well as prospects Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore.
Lindholm is a 28 year old left shot blueliner who will immediately play a huge role in Boston. Taken 6th overall by the Ducks back in 2012, the 6’4” defenseman has posted 222pts (57G, 165A) in 582 games for Anaheim.
The Swede is known primarily as a stay at home defenseman but can chip in offensively when needed. A workhorse on the blue line, Lindholm is likely to slide into the B’s top pairing with Charlie McAvoy to create a formidable shutdown duo, capable of eating up large minutes of ice time each night.
Lindholm was in the final season of a 6 year $31.5M contract which would have seen him become a UFA at season’s end. Anaheim reportedly attempted to work out an extension with the blue liner, however when talks stalled, they began working the phone lines to facilitate a deal.
It’s now widely expected that Lindholm’s camp will begin negotiating a long term contract extension with the Boston front office.
Meanwhile in a separate deal, the Atlantic Division leading Florida Panthers acquired longtime Flyers captain Claude Giroux following his 1,000th career NHL game.
The full deal will see Giroux, a 2024 5th round pick, Connor Bunnaman, 50% of Giroux’s salary retained, and German Rubtsov sent to Florida in exchange for Owen Tippett, a 2024 1st round pick, and a 2023 3rd round pick.
The 34 year old has spent his entire NHL career with the Philadelphia Flyers, becoming only the second player in franchise history to play 1,000 games in Philadelphia. With 900pts (291G, 609A) to his credit, the former Gatineau Olympiques forward reportedly informed the Flyers he would only waive his no movement clause to join the Panthers.
Similar to Lindholm, Giroux was also in the final year of his contract and was set to become an UFA at season’s end. With the Flyers likely heading towards a lottery pick and full on rebuild, the club elected to move their franchise icon and recoup some assets rather than lose him for nothing a few months from now.
With Chiarot, Giroux, Manson, and Lindholm already off the board ahead of the March 21st trade deadline, there remain quite a few intriguing names on the list of available players.
23 year Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun has generated interest from a multitude of clubs around the league. While rental players such as Mark Giordano, Marc-Andre Fleury, Rickard Rakell, and Jake DeBrusk remain intriguing pieces as well.
Although Saturday’s deals take a bit of the spice out of Monday’s deadline day countdown, this year’s trade watch theme could now be classified as quantity/depth deals from here on out. That being said, with rumours of a full blown reset in Chicago beginning to gain momentum, Saturday could be just the tip of the iceberg if the likes of Kane, Toews, and DeBrincat are also on the move.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner