The Athletic and Daily Faceoff both released their first trade boards of the 2023-24 season over the weekend. If you look at the top, you might notice a trend: There’s a lot of Calgary Flames.
Mailbag: Should Bruins be in on Hanifin or Lindholm?
On The Athletic, Chris Johnston has Flames defensemen Noah Hanifin and Chris Tanev and center Elias Lindholm listed as his top three players on the trade market. On Daily Faceoff, Frank Seravalli has those guys as three of his top four targets.
That makes a lot of sense. All three are unrestricted free agents after the season. The Flames are under .500, currently on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture. Based on various reports over the last couple months, it seems unlikely they’ll be able to extend any of them. They also already traded away one pending free agent, sending defenseman Nikita Zadorov to Vancouver.
The Bruins were linked to two of them – Lindholm and Hanifin – in trade rumors over the summer. That begs the question: Could they go after one of them now?
We here at The Skate Podcast tried to answer that exact question on our latest mailbag episode (which you can listen to above), as a couple of the questions were about Lindholm and Hanifin in particular.
Let’s start with Lindholm (who is not related to current Bruin Hampus Lindholm). The thinking as it related to the Bruins’ reported interest over the summer was that they had a glaring need at center in the wake of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci’s retirements.
As our friend with the clever, if inappropriate, Twitter name alludes to, that need isn’t quite so glaring right about now. Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha have 20 and 19 points, respectively, through 24 games. That puts them on pace for 68 and 65 – legitimate top-six numbers.
Matt Poitras shocked everyone by winning an NHL job at 19 years old, and has more than held his own slotting in as the No. 3 center behind Coyle and Zacha. He has 11 points and is tied for fifth on the team in 5-on-5 scoring. He’s playing 14:18 per game and is tied for the team lead in penalties drawn.
Add in Johnny Beecher’s solid work as the fourth-line center and Morgan Geekie’s ability to shift to center when called upon, and the Bruins don’t look all that desperate for a center at the moment.
Lindholm has topped 65 points twice in his 11-year career. He is currently trailing Coyle and Zacha with 17 points in 24 games this season. He’s still a very good two-way center who can play in all situations, and he can certainly help just about any contender, but the debate is whether he’s a significant enough upgrade over Zacha and/or Coyle to make trading premium assets for him worth it.
The answer right now might be no. That could obviously change if any or all of Coyle, Zacha or Poitras slow down, but that’s a hypothetical that hasn’t happened yet.
The Bruins would also have to clear cap space to pull off a trade for any of these guys. They currently have very little of it, and all three of those Flames have cap hits in the $4.5-5 million range. That means trading away someone off the active roster.
Let’s move on to Hanifin. The Bruins have been linked to him throughout his career, going all the way back to the 2015 draft. He’s from Norwood and played at Boston College.
He’s also a 6-foot-3, 207-pound first-pairing defenseman in his prime at 26 years old. He’s a left shot who plays in all situations. He has averaged 42 points per season over the last two-plus years, including 12 points in 24 games this season. He is extremely durable and dependable, missing a grand total of 20 games in his nine-year NHL career. He is a steal salary-wise with a current cap hit of $4.95 million, although he will get much more than that on his next contract.
The idea of a top four consisting of Hanifin, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo is mouth-watering. It would probably be the best in the NHL.
Even the biggest Matt Grzelcyk fans would have to acknowledge that. This is also a good place to point out that the Grzelcyk-McAvoy pairing has not been as dominant as usual so far this season. In their 134 5-on-5 minutes together, the Bruins have been outscored 4-3 and have given up more high-danger chances (37) than they’ve gotten (36).
Of course, the big question is what the Bruins would have to give up. The short answer: A lot. As we mentioned, at least one player on the current roster would have to go (to Calgary or elsewhere) to make the money work. That could potentially be Grzelcyk himself.
The Flames would presumably want at least one top prospect or first-round pick. The Bruins do not have a first-, second- or third-round pick in 2024, nor a second in 2025. With so many defensemen seemingly on their way out of Calgary, the Flames might ask for Mason Lohrei, Boston’s top defense prospect.
That would understandably be a tough decision for the Bruins. They envision Lohrei as a top-four defenseman himself, possibly as early as this season. Heck, he already played with both McAvoy and Carlo during his 10-game call-up. And while it was clear he still has some developing to do defensively, his upside, especially offensively, was also evident.
On the other hand, Hanifin is already the kind of player the Bruins hope Lohrei becomes, and he’s only four years older. He would be better now and also presents more certainty going forward if the Bruins sign him to an extension (which they would have to in order to justify the move).
Anyway, this is all hypothetical for now, of course. But the Flames moving guys well before the March 8 trade deadline isn’t out of the question, so it’s never too early to explore these possibilities.