If there was any doubt the Vancouver Canucks are going for the Stanley Cup, it's gone now. They swung for the fences by paying a lot for Elias Lindholm, but they won't regret it, even if he walks in free agency, says Ken Campbell.
It’s hard to imagine the Calgary Flames could have received any more for Elias Lindholm, a 29-year-old on an expiring contract, as a rental player than what they got from the Vancouver Canucks.
Andrei Kuzmenko might be able to turn things around – remember, he was a 74-point scorer just last season. Hunter Brzustewicz is an offensive machine in junior hockey, and Jonni Jurmo is a massive man who could end up being a third-pair defenseman at the NHL. And the first-rounder and conditional fourth-rounder in 2024 will come in handy for a Flames team that should be in full rebuild mode.
But does that mean the Vancouver Canucks got fleeced? Hardly. The Canucks are clearly in a win-now mode, and they swung for the fences. Patrik Allvin is indeed the GM of the Canucks, but this deal had an enormous influence from Canucks’ hockey operations president Jim Rutherford. This is what he does. And the Canucks, at least in the short term, are that much stronger for it.