[TRADE] Elias Lindholm to Canucks, Kuzmenko+ to Flames

[pmorrow]

Calgary Flames
@NHLFlames
·
1m
TRADE ALERT!

The #Flames have acquired Andrei Kuzmenko, a 2024 first round pick, Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo and a conditional 2024 fourth round pick from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Elias Lindholm: http://cflam.es/4bllZKM

[pmorrow]

Kevin Weekes
@KevinWeekes
With the @Canucks that could include Lindholm from @NHLFlames #Flames for Kuzmenko and some other pieces .
#Canucks #HockeyX #HockeyTwitter

[Feenom]

True to Jimmy’s word. He hinted to the OD guys that he may pull something off before the deadline and maybe during AS week.

[pmorrow]

Now apparently Chris Tanev was part of the deal and might be in a second deal to the Canucks. Wowza

[pmorrow]

deal official.

Calgary Flames
@NHLFlames
·
1m
TRADE ALERT!

The #Flames have acquired Andrei Kuzmenko, a 2024 first round pick, Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo and a conditional 2024 fourth round pick from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Elias Lindholm: http://cflam.es/4bllZKM

[gogoayane]

Pretty good haul for a pending UFA

[senryu]

Pretty good haul for a pending UFA

Agreed.

[Daydream Nation]

Vancouver has been killing it going back to the Hronek trade. Good trade for both teams.

[Feenom]

Kuz has his second chance. Hopefully he returns to his goal scoring form.

[chuckcouples]

That's a great deal for Calgary. Lindholm has been not good this year.

[rataylor22]

Both of the key pieces (Lind and Kuz) have agreed to waive their clauses, per LeBrun

Doesn’t matter now but Lindholm did not have any trade protection, only Kuzmenko did.

[rataylor22]

Pretty good deal for both teams. Lindholm is obviously a massive upgrade at 2C over Sutter. Down year for sure but he clearly was playing with a bad attitude this year (shouldn’t be a problem on a competitive playoff team) and was just going through the motions. He’s clearly not a driver 1C, but he’s great with good players, and he’ll play with good players in Van.

From the Calgary perspective, get a 1st with no conditions, potential 3rd, a prospect with roughly 2nd round value. Pretty good haul. Brzustewicz has really popped this year but still likely projects as an offensive 4 at his top end, but that’s still a nice value. Jurmo probably never even becomes an impact AHLer, but is what it is. Kuzmenko was obviously a cap dump. Will be interesting if Calgary can turn him into more assets though, whether at this deadline or next. Don’t really see Calgary getting much more than this from any other team or Van with an extension in place either, so they did well.

[Axeman33]

I also like it for both teams. It certainly seems like Calgary wasn't going to be re-signing Lindholm although it's not like they didn't try. Lindholm is looking for big money, and will no doubt get it, but someone is going to overpay for a guy who played his best hockey with Tkachuk and Gaudreau and after they left, we see the warts. Most guys excel in contract years to get top dollar in the upcoming off-season but for whatever reason, it hasn't worked out that way for Lindholm. Either way, he's going to get a new shot in Vancouver to get into the playoffs and possibly contend for a Cup. Very typical of Rutherford (I thought Patrick Allvin was the GM in Vancouver??) to make these types of deals well in advance of the trade deadline. He did say to not be surprised if he doesn't pull off another deal before the end of the All-Star break, so stand by to stand by for more fun in Vancouver.

For Calgary, the biggest part of this deal will be the 1st round pick even though it will be near the end of the 1st. As I mentioned, it seemed apparent they weren't going to get a Lindholm deal done so Conroy has done a good job getting something for what will most likely be nothing in the summer. I am not the biggest Kuzmenko fan, especially when you consider he still has another year on his current $5.5M deal (speaking of making the most of a contract year last year). That could be a tough sell to move him out for much when you consider his contract but you never know. The Brzustewicz kid is having a really good year in the OHL this year so there's that. This is just the start of the sell off for Calgary at this point.

I just think both teams got what they were hoping for. I dont know if Calgary making this trade this far from the deadline was a good thing for them or a bad thing. I am sure Conroy circled back to other suiters and asked if they were ready to talk hardball at this point, so a bird in the hand I suppose.

[Daydream Nation]

Pretty good deal for both teams. Lindholm is obviously a massive upgrade at 2C over Sutter. Down year for sure but he clearly was playing with a bad attitude this year (shouldn’t be a problem on a competitive playoff team) and was just going through the motions. He’s clearly not a driver 1C, but he’s great with good players, and he’ll play with good players in Van.

From the Calgary perspective, get a 1st with no conditions, potential 3rd, a prospect with roughly 2nd round value. Pretty good haul. Brzustewicz has really popped this year but still likely projects as an offensive 4 at his top end, but that’s still a nice value. Jurmo probably never even becomes an impact AHLer, but is what it is. Kuzmenko was obviously a cap dump. Will be interesting if Calgary can turn him into more assets though, whether at this deadline or next. Don’t really see Calgary getting much more than this from any other team or Van with an extension in place either, so they did well.

I agree with this. Calgary did very well but this is exactly what Vancouver needed to do. With Petersson and Hronek's contract taking a big jump next season coupled with the season they are currently having, they need to take a big swing for this season. Plus, they didn't give up a premium asset (Letterkenny or Wallinder) and that 1st is going to be somewhere in the 20s, hopefully late 20s. Kuzmenko didn't fit Tocchet's style so moving on from him and his 5+ million cap hit for next year is a positive. And now this gives Tocchet the ability to keep the Lotto line together and have Lindholm center the #2 pushing Suter back to the 4th line keeping that dominant 3rd line intact. I'd be excited if I were a Vancouver fan. I'd give this trade an A grade for Calgary and a B+ for Vancouver.

[2014olympicgold]

Kuzmenko:
124gp, 47g, 48a, 95pts, 0.766ppg

Lindholm:
129gp, 31g, 65a, 96pts, 0.744ppg

There's WAY more to Lindholm's game than points. But it's not like he's put up his 2021-22 numbers recently. I also think adding Lindholm disrupts their lines quite a bit. What happens if Boeser and Lindholm don't work out? The good thing is they have runway in the season to test it all out.

The price for lindholm wasn't huge either, and it's more it'll only look bad if 2 pieces in the trade hit.