[Trade] Canucks Acquire Elias Lindholm from Calgary for Andrei Kuzmenko, Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo, 2024 1st and Conditional 2024 4th

[hockeyfan-observer]

Good pickup by the Canucks at some cost for future assets though - with Brz, probably would have taken 2+ years of seasoning before arriving here anyway.  Kuz was bit happy-go lucky but you can see his luv for scoring goals + the fans enjoyed his play especially last year - probably will get a few additional looks in Calgary with Huberdeau.

 

With Lindholm, I think the Canucks get a very versatile player that can move up lines 1-3 .  Guess we have to see what happens next in terms of TDL activity - wonder if they will pick up some additional depth on defense and the 4th lines - possibly some physical / edgier types to complement the players they already have, though we will hopefully have Soucy and PDG back in the near term.

 

 

[fanofvan]

17 minutes ago, GrammaInTheTub said:

Agreed completely. Cheers and again sorry for the snap judgment and argument. That’s on me. If we can start again fresh, I would be thankful for the gracious gesture. We’re all Canucks fans and I regret getting testy. I’m sorry. 

No hard feelings from my end....we are just shooting the breeze over the interwebs.  Appreciate the passion of the fanbase.

[Codez]

Break this down and let's look at this trade objectively

 

The deal is essentially:

 

Free asset (Kuz)

Late first rounder 

3rd round pick (hunter B)

4th round pick

 

For a bona-fide proven 2C having a down year and cap space this year and next.

 

Canucks get the best player in the trade and cap space without giving up any A level prospect 

[filthy animal]

23 minutes ago, Kevlar said:

The HELL YEAH line!!! Elia, Elia, Ilya line!

 

thats a money name for that line!

[filthy animal]

7 minutes ago, canuck73_3 said:

Was hoping to not trade Brzustiewicz but overall very happy with the return. Love Kuzmenko but was clearly not fitting in this season for whatever reason. Welcome a legit top 6 Centre as return. 

 

Same, giving up brusz was probably the asset i wanted the team to keep out of the deal, but gotta give to get.  Pretty happy with the deal overall

[48MPHSlapshot]

Good guy Kuzmenko taking Calgary off his no-trade list allowing the deal to happen.

[R3aL]

After consuming so much trade content and analysis I’m here now:

 

Elias Lindholm was the perfect trade target for us.

 

what we gain:

 

- Bonafide top 6 right handed C that can also play wing

- clear upgrade over Kuzmenko who has not been a key component in our teams success this season and was looking like he wouldn’t play in the playoffs

- removed a team distraction. I’m sure kuzy struggling to understand the system and play the way everyone else was difficult. And seeing him not even thrive on PP1 was tough too.

- we have our self contract flex with kuz money gone next year and the option to resign EL

- EL gives us a EP back up plan and also incentive for EP to sign

- if the ELIAS boys have chemistry they could sign reasonable caps to make it work so they can stay together and take advantage of a clear competitive window for a great org, for a great fanbase. The Swedish legacy here does matter too. 
- Elias has seen players who sign big deals and get trapped in situations that don’t work with Huberdeau now. I don’t think he will just chase the biggest bag regardless of team fit. He may like the idea of having a little run to see if it fits, knowing the plan and the projection of the team before signing and be willing to sign that fair deal understanding he could be a 50 or player in another market if in the wrong situation. Whereas in Vancouver he will be set up to succeed, compete and live in a great city 

 

Now for team fit his two way numbers have been strong and pretty good def results considering he gets tough matchups and Calgary has sucked. His environment has not been good. He played his best hockey with great linemates in a structured system. He will have great linemates here when offensively deployed say: petey-lindholm-mikehyev or def deployed say: suter-lindholm-mikehyev  if they wanted to run the lotto line situationally. 

 

it shouldn’t be forgotten he has been a selke finalist before
 

the fact he plays wing and c like JT and petey gives them lots of options and also better injury coverage.
 

Our only RHC is Lafferty and he plays wing mostly. Adding EL to our top 6 is huge for faceoffs and situational draws where we need a RHC on his strong side at key game moments where we had been getting ripped apart for awhile now. So I’m super happy for this.

 

our PP was one piece away from being an atomic bomb. A player who plays the bumper.. this is Lindholm. He’s not Left handed so we won’t see the exact same Horvat / MILLER pp bumper player but I’m sure they will figure this out and as a 5 man unit upgrading suter to Lindholm on the PP is huge.

 

I’m ecstatic to see what happens here.

 

but I think he’s going to be in an opportunity to thrive here in RT system. I think he’s a great fit.

 

my only worry is similar to Hronek we put him in this killer spot to succeed and he chases the bag or we get priced out. 
 

if we win the cup nothing else matters.

 

if we don’t I hope he’s a great fit and we resign him and petey and Hronek to all reasonable deals where they are paid relatively fairly to our teams cap dynamics and able to build around them. I hope they buy into being winners and not the Toronto mode. 
 

-

 

as for pieces given up:

 

1st rounder (basically a second) was expected to be traded I’m  good with it 

 

jurmo (contract spot throw in)

 

kuzmenko - love the guy so happy we had him last year as he helped us during a tough time. Sad it didn’t work but nothing but respect and love for him especially since he waived his NTC. Hope he lights it up and has fun and signs another contract here. Hockey has to be fun for him and he deserves that. Hope millstein is happy with the result and kuzy thrives and sets himself up for another trade or deal somewhere else.

 

hunter - super sad to lose him. But really happy we didn’t trade hogs pods willy Lekker

 

Inthink this kids gonna have a massive chip on his shoulder 

 

- draft fell to third round

- leads ohl in Scoring and not even a usa camp invite

-and now traded by the team that drafted him to a conf rival 

 

to a team that drafted Rasmus Anderson with a draft pick we traded them for Sven bear chz

 

if he hits his ceiling his Ryan Ellis ++ ceiling this will be tough. But he could be anywhere for a Adam clendenning to an Evan Bouchard to an Adam fox

 

i kinda feel for the kid hope he does well but not too well that we lose the trade down the line in the situation we don’t sign EL or he walked.

 

-

 

but I love that management makes bold moves and focuses on FIT.

 

EL should fit but we get a trial run here to make sure for both parties. Let’s hope for the best. As we are shaping up to be one of the best teams in franchise history which is absolutely insane   
 

long ass ramble post I’m just so excited by this all 

[filthy animal]

2 hours ago, Drakrami said:

Damn Allvin/Rutherford god. They get things done. 

 

Why are people talking about contracts and whatnot lol... 

 

Even if Lindholm is just a rental, I would pay 2x 1sts and a prospect just to make a stanley cup run. Hell yea! We need a cup, not some ideal that "may be" we can be "good" for a long stretch. 

 

all these draftist, and prospect geeks think that we are gonna have a 10 year cup dynasty filled with 1st and 2nd round prospects

 

If we win the cup, nobody is going to care what Bruzs does from here on end, he can have 5 Norris, 20 Harts, and 12 Art Ross trophies, doesn't matter. Theres only one trophy we're after

[canuck73_3]

Been a fan of Lindholm since he mocked the storm surge kids got balls 

 

 

[Canuck Surfer]

1 hour ago, Jaimito said:

 

 

 

In most years?

 

Hronek is also an All Star with the season he has had!

 

Snubbed according to volume, not value...

[Messier_Sucks]

1 hour ago, N4ZZY said:

 

A player drafted in the 1st round is usually more talented, and I think it's safe to assume that some can make the direct jump to an NHL roster. 

 

A player drafted in later rounds, the percentage drops, by quite a bit. Usually they'll need some time in the minors (AHL) to develop their game so that it's a pro game. 

100%

 

Usually the one's that jump right into ur roster are top 5 picks. 

 

After the top 5 the percentage of players that make the NHL and play more than 100 games is only 75%

 

Late first rounders are around 60%

 

Once you get into the 2nd round it's a crapshoot with around 35%. 

 

A 3rd round pick like Bru is only a 25% chance. He's having an amazing year for sure but he could easily bust too. 

[Taphouse Canuck]

The fans wanted him, now we got him.

 

Can't wait for the all-star break to be over so we can see how RT is going to change up the lines.

 

PP 1 should be awesome

[48MPHSlapshot]

It's a shame we couldn't get Tanev as part of the deal. I think he ends up in Toronto tbh. 

[Messier_Sucks]

3 hours ago, bh90 said:

Now time to go get Henrique or Vatrano 

 

Henrique/Vatrano - Miller - Boeser

Petterson - Lindolm - Mikheyev

Joshua - Blueger - Garland

Hoglander - Suter - Lafferty

 

Feels like a video game 

 

I wouldn't mind Henrique at all. He's decent on the dot 54% and can chip in some offence, has a 30 goal season under his belt.

 

Not sold on Vatrano at all, his numbers look decent from his hot start, but the REAL Frank Vatrano is showing up now, back to his 40 pt pace. 

[filthy animal]

5 hours ago, DeNiro said:

Been here long enough to remember the hype surrounding Kevin Connauton.

 

I love that we sold when the hype was high. We did the same thing with Tyler Madden.

Jack Rathbone, Jordan Subban, weren't these guys supposed to have been manning PP1 the last 5 - 10 years?

 

[Messier_Sucks]

1 hour ago, Jaimito said:

 

 

Was at the All-star game here in 98.

 

Pretty sure the Avs had 6. (Forseberg, Sakic, Roy, Ozo, Kurri and Kamensky )

[Jigsaw]

2 Tanevs and were done.

[CanucksFan26]

Hours after this trade I still just don’t love it. Disregarding the fact that I love Kuzmenko, I just don’t see a world where we won this trade. 
 

Lindholm is extremely talented at a highly important position of need. He gives us upgrades in a lot of areas right now, but I really struggle with how much his game has fallen off this year. Maybe Tocchet will bring him back to speed. I dunno. If he’s a long term extension, I dunno where the money comes from and who gets sacrificed. If he’s truly a rental, it’s nice having the money for next year but we need to make a run. I hate rentals and still have nightmares of what happened when we got Toffoli. 
 

Kuzmenko is very obviously talented but shaken and not a Tocchet guy. Love him but don’t want to hold him back. My problem is I think we really devalued him in this trade. Kuz on talent alone to me should have been able to get this deal done as a 1 for 1 or maybe a prospect added and that’s it. Kuz is signed through next year and gives them time to build his confidence back and swing him for a good haul at the next deadline. At worst he continues his lack of confidence and gets moved for something small next deadline. At best he regains form and comes back to haunt us for years to come. 
 

Picks and prospects and others: First point I’ll make is with what we paid it’s very disappointing we did not get any salary retention. As a team with no space and maybe needing another move, it seemed like getting Calgary to retain on a pending UFA should have been top priority. Getting an extra 2 mil or so for another potential move would have been huge. This to me is far and away the biggest failure of this deal at the moment. Hunter and Jurmo are good prospects and I think both can make the NHL one day. Sucks to see them go. I would love to see Hunter especially in his continued development and see where he goes. Right now these aren’t tough losses as neither is a top tier prospect for us, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier to part with either. I revisit Gustav Forsling a lot and where he was when he was traded and that’s where I get worried when moving prospects. Yes, not everyone will pan out or develop into something amazing, but players in this development phase can really be tough to lose. Moving the 1st is another part I hate. Given how much I feel we gave up and not getting salary retention, I think it’s a major blow to move the 1st. I have no issue with us moving draft picks given our current roster and some high end prospects we currently have, but I just don’t think this was the right play given everything I mentioned. 
 

For my closing thoughts, if Lindholm is only a rental and we don’t win the cup, I will forever call this trade a failure. If he stays past this year and we don’t win the cup this year, then I guess only time will tell. 

[wai_lai416]

I know most are happy with the trade but given how discussion were going and what fans were willing to pay Calgary for lindholm which was way less than what we ended up trading him for. What is reasonable now for tanev? We don’t really have draft picks other than a 3rd that might go to Calgary and late rounders this year.. not sure about using next years pick.. realistically outside of prospect we don’t really have any draft picks left this year that’ll move a trade?

[Sergiomomesso]

Top 5 in goals against, good mix of size and mobility on D. Yet we all want a guy who played here a lifetime ago, who spent half the time in the infirmary. Our D is fine. Soucy will be good to go in 4 weeks. Juulsen has earned his spot as the 6-7 guy. Myers has been a pleasant surprise. No more shipping assets for UFA’s. this team didn’t get to top spot with a patchwork roster or lucky bounces. These guys deserve a chance. 

[4petesake]

16 minutes ago, Messier_Sucks said:

Was at the All-star game here in 98.

 

Pretty sure the Avs had 6. (Forseberg, Sakic, Roy, Ozo, Kurri and Kamensky )

 

The Oilers had 9 in 1986.

[Ballisticsports]

 

 

 

[Elias Pettersson]

Elias Pettersson, Elias Lindholm and Gabriel Landeskog playing on the same line for Sweden...

 

 

[Elias Pettersson]

Who wants to see an all Swedish line?  

 

Hoglander     Pettersson    Lindholm

Mikheyev       Miller             Boeser

Joshua         Blueger          Garland

Aman            Suter             Lafferty

 

C'mon Tocchet, we know you want this.  Just do it...   

[canucks curse]

21 minutes ago, Sergiomomesso said:

Top 5 in goals against, good mix of size and mobility on D. Yet we all want a guy who played here a lifetime ago, who spent half the time in the infirmary. Our D is fine. Soucy will be good to go in 4 weeks. Juulsen has earned his spot as the 6-7 guy. Myers has been a pleasant surprise. No more shipping assets for UFA’s. this team didn’t get to top spot with a patchwork roster or lucky bounces. These guys deserve a chance. 

also lindyH will help Canucks defensively - unless he plays unreal rest of season, I would doubt anyone would sign him to something like 6x6 at age 29 with his production down after tkachuk left