The Bruins are a better team now than they were a week ago. Hampus Lindholm is a legitimate needle-mover and exactly the kind of two-way, minutes-eating, left-shot defenseman with size that they have been looking for since Zdeno Chara's inevitable decline finally arrived three or four years ago.
Lindholm is 28 years old and playoff-tested, having played a critical first-pairing role during Anaheim's runs to the Western Conference finals in 2015 and 2017. He will be counted on to play the same role in Boston, likely lining up next to Charlie McAvoy and facing opponents' best lines shift after shift, night after night.
That should free up mobile puck-movers Matt Grzelcyk and Mike Reilly to feast on easier matchups on the second and third pairings. While both have played well next to McAvoy -- extremely well in Grzelcyk's case -- the Bruins did not love the idea of having to count on either to hold up in those tough, top-pairing defensive assignments for what they hope is a long playoff run.
Lindholm's analytics have been in decline over the last few years. That should not be ignored, but it also should not be causing anyone to smash the panic button. A deeper dive still shows strong microstats in areas like rush defense and zone exits and entries.
Lindholm also has not been playing with a true first-pairing-caliber partner like he was during his best years when he had the underrated Francois Beauchemin or Josh Manson before he started getting hurt every year. This year he was paired with 19-year-old Jamie Drysdale, a talented but raw player.
It seems like a pretty safe bet that Lindholm will look better -- in both the eye test and the analytics -- next to a blue-liner as good as McAvoy. That he is more of a clear No. 2 than a co-No. 1 is fine. That's why the Bruins are paying him $6.5 million per year over the next eight seasons rather than the $9.5 million McAvoy is getting.
So, the question is not whether the Bruins improved at the trade deadline. It's whether they improved enough to really challenge for the Stanley Cup this season.
Notably, they did not add anything up front. No second-line center. No scoring right wing. Not even a depth piece. That leaves them in a tentative situation where they might be good enough if their current lines continue to play well and everyone stays healthy, but could be in trouble if someone goes cold or gets hurt.
The other seven Eastern Conference playoff teams got better, too, but none are without question marks. The conference-leading Panthers made arguably the one splash bigger than Lindholm, adding Claude Giroux to an already lethal offense. They paid a high price to get defenseman Ben Chiarot as well, but there are serious questions about whether he's actually a meaningful upgrade. They obviously believe he is; many others (including me) aren't so sure. The biggest question for Florida, though, is the health of star defenseman Aaron Ekblad. He's on long-term injured reserve and is not expected to return during the regular season. If he misses time during the playoffs as well, they could be in trouble.
The two-time defending champion Lightning ran back their 2020 trade deadline plan, spending serious assets to upgrade their third line with Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul. While we all assume it's going to work because everything the Lightning do seems to work, it's not actually a guarantee that these two deals work out as well as the Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow trades did.
The Maple Leafs improved their defense with Mark Giordano and Ilya Lyubushkin and added some depth up front with Colin Blackwell, but they did not address their biggest problem: Goaltending. That will remain a huge question mark, and could easily be their downfall.
The Hurricanes didn't need as much as some other teams, but they also added the least of the East contenders, settling for just a struggling Max Domi that they'll have to hope turns his game around on a new team. The Penguins found the second-line winger they needed in Rickard Rakell, which should help them close the gap on Carolina in the Metropolitan Division.
The Rangers added a bunch of depth with Andrew Copp, Frank Vatrano, Tyler Motte and Justin Braun, but still look like a team that will need Igor Shesterkin to put them on his back if they're going to make a deep run (which he may very well do). The Capitals looked like the clear No. 8 in the East before the deadline and still do, with the additions of depth forwards Johan Larsson and Marcus Johansson not enough to move the needle.
The Bruins still are not and should not be favored to win the East. At the very least, the Panthers and Lightning are ahead of them. Probably the Hurricanes as well, and maybe the Penguins too. Putting Boston fifth looks about right, but only four teams get out of the first round.
You would have loved to see one more real impact move -- specifically up front -- to lift the Bruins into that next tier, but that trade just may not have been out there. Giroux refused to waive his no-trade clause for Boston. Tomas Hertl chose to stay in San Jose with a new eight-year extension. The Canucks held on to J.T. Miller, Conor Garland and Brock Boeser. The Bruins were reportedly in on Rakell, but not matching the steep price Pittsburgh paid for a player who is roughly a Jake DeBrusk equivalent is understandable.
That doesn't mean the Bruins have no chance, though. They have the third-best record in the NHL since Jan. 1. They rank in the top five in team defense. Jeremy Swayman has been one of the best goalies in the league since returning from AHL Providence in early February. And again, they did just get better.
If the forward group ends up not being good enough come May, it will have been a predictable problem that Don Sweeney will rightly be criticized for. On the other hand, if Lindholm proves to be a big enough upgrade on the back end and the offense is just good enough to complement an elite defense, Sweeney will look like a genius. So goes post-trade deadline evaluations.
