The Vancouver Canucks filled a need on paper by acquiring Elias Lindholm, who scored in his team debut. How has he been since?

During his long career as the GM of the Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins, Jim Rutherford had a reputation for making things happen in the NHL trade market.

Now that he’s president of the Vancouver Canucks, it’s clear that his protege, Patrik Allvin, is cut from the same cloth. 

In January, Allvin got ahead of his peers by snagging this year’s most desirable rental player from the Calgary Flames.

Elias Lindholm is a center who can be deployed in all situations, who’s excellent on faceoffs, and earned runner-up honors in Selke Trophy voting in 2022.

He’s also a right shot. And it was none other than Rutherford who made the fifth-overall selection in 2013 that brought Lindholm to the NHL with the Hurricanes.

Lindholm's Deployment

Lindholm's first five games with Vancouver came on the road. Starting on a line with Elias Pettersson and Ilya Mikheyev, he scored two power-play goals in his debut.

He also joined J.T. Miller and Teddy Blueger on regular face-off detail, winning more than 55 percent of his draws on the road trip, and logged more ice time than any other forward as the Canucks went 3-1-1.

Since then, the Canucks have struggled. They’ve gone 3-5-1 with a goal differential of minus-10, been uncharacteristically poor on special teams and turned in some listless performances. They've also played a heavy schedule with a ton of travel — the dip could be a result of overall fatigue as much as anything.

Lindholm has added another two goals and two assists since his first game. But since he was moved away from Pettersson and into a third-line center role, he has gone pointless in the last six games. He’s still being used in all situations, but at 18:43 per game, he has now slipped behind Pettersson and J.T. Miller in average ice time.

After the Canucks came back to beat Boston 3-2 in overtime on Feb. 24, coach Rick Tocchet praised Lindholm’s play.

“He had a good 200-foot game today,” he said. “I thought he was really good.”

Tocchet likes the idea of running Miller, Pettersson, Lindholm and Blueger down the middle as a baseline deployment. 

“You’ve got to spread the wingers out,” he said. “So we’ll see how it pans out. You load up a line every once in awhile but I think, for now, having those four centerman is pretty strong.”

There’s still room — and time — to tinker, of course. There could be more deadline deals, and there are also other moving parts. 

Lindholm's Price

As a reminder, the Canucks gave up five assets for Lindholm:

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Lindholm's Future

The last time a player named Lindholm got dealt at the deadline, the Boston Bruins signed Hampus Lindholm to an eight-year contract extension one day after acquiring him from the Anaheim Ducks on March 19, 2022 — and four days before his first game with his new team.

While that worked out well for Boston, the Canucks have elected to wait and assess the fit with Elias Lindholm before making any long-term decisions. 

If Lindholm turns out to be an important player in a long run for Vancouver, that should certainly make both sides more inclined to move from dating to a long-term relationship — perhaps at a team-friendly cap hit that's lower than the $8 million or $9 million a year that he was rumored to be seeking for an extension in Calgary. 

If either side decides to cut ties — well, the price tag was high, but it's easy to understand how a first-time GM overseeing a first-place team would be inclined to be aggressive.

Do it too often, though, and a depleted prospect pool can lead to organizational pain for years to come.