Can Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov fix the Boston Bruins?

One of the cardinal sins of NHL contract negotiations is splashing cash based on a strong playoff performance. Remember Bryan Bickell? Ten or twenty games isn’t enough to justify a big-money deal, but every offseason, GMs throw on their rose-colored glasses and pay a premium for supposed winners. The boneheaded tradition seemed to continue when free agency opened on Canada Day. 

Elias Lindholm’s 44 points were his fewest since 2017-18 and should have taken a bite out of his salary as a UFA. The 29-year-old struggled to find his footing after a high-profile trade from the Calgary Flames to the Vancouver Canucks and finished the year on the third line. Then, when it mattered most, Lindholm rediscovered his offensive game with 5 goals and 10 points in 13 postseason contests. All was forgiven, and the Swede signed a 7-year, $54.5 million contract with the Boston Bruins.

Nikita Zadorov, Lindhom’s teammate for most of the past three seasons, asked out of Calgary last fall due to a lack of ice time (18:24 ATOI) only to log even less (17:00) in Vancouver. It’s easy to forget the big Russian with the big personality has never really been a top-four guy, but he played like one in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Zadorov’s bone-jarring checks and surprising offense (4 G, 8 P in 13 GP) bought him a six-year, $30-million ticket to Boston and another reunion with Lindholm.

Signing postseason standouts from a slight overachiever like Vancouver to expensive, long-term deals reeks of desperation. Is the winningest team of the 21st-century shopping with its heart instead of its head? Not likely. Signing the duo would have made perfect sense if it were an option last summer. 

The Bruins followed up the best regular season in NHL history by coughing up a 3-1 series lead against the Florida Panthers in 2022-23, then lost an unprecedented amount of talent that offseason. Sweeney axed Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno to clear cap space. Dmitry Orlov, Connor Clifton, and Garnet Hathaway left as free agents. Worst of all, Bruins legends Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retired, taking their hometown discounts (combined $3.5 million cap hit in 2022-23) with them.

In-house replacements Charlie Coyle (25 G, 60 P in 82 GP) and Pavel Zacha (21 G, 59P in 78 GP) managed career highs in points as Boston’s makeshift top centers but combined for just 11 in 26 playoff games. In a division with Aleksander Barkov, Auston Matthews, and Brayden Point, Zacha and Coyle can’t be expected to win top-line playoff minutes. Enter Lindholm, the best center on the market, and, according to Sweeney, a stylistic match for Bergeron, the former captain and future Hall-of-Famer.

“Back [at the 2013 NHL Entry] Draft, we identified Elias as a player who has a lot of Bergeron qualities,” Sweeney told the media after his free agency raid on the Canucks. “The bumper spot in our power play is an area that Elias is going to fit in seamlessly, and he wins his draws,” said the executive, who played 1,052 games as a defenseman for the B’s. “That’s a little bit of what we had [in Bergeron] and what we’ve missed.”

Lindholm isn’t Bergeron. No one is, save for maybe Barkov or Anze Kopitar. He still has the perfect skill set to complement Bruins superstar David Pastrnak, one of the most dangerous snipers in hockey. Lindholm’s elite faceoff numbers (56.4% in 2023-24) and defensive sensibilities (2022 Selke runner-up) will ensure that Boston has enough of the puck to maximize Pastrnak’s minutes. When he’s not beefing up the Czech’s lackluster possession numbers, Lindholm will have plenty of chances to score himself.

Lindholm plants his 200-lb frame in the slot, provides a passing option for his wingers, and gets pucks on net with a sneaky release. Career-worst shooting (8.7%) limited him to 15 goals last season, but before linemates Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau left him hanging, Lindholm averaged 33 goals and 74 points per 82 games for the Flames. Imagine all the offense he’ll soak up from ‘Pasta,’ who has the sixth most points and fourth most goals in the NHL since his breakout season in 2016-17. 

Between his tailor-made fit beside Pastrnak and the likelihood he’ll push Zacha and Coyle into more appropriate roles, Lindholm isn’t an impulse buy. He’s the key that will unlock Boston’s forward group, and he’s finally where he belongs after what Sweeney called “a two-year pursuit.”

Though Zadorov doesn’t have Lindholm’s pedigree, he will similarly make everything fall into place on the Bruins’ blue line by complimenting another star skater, Charlie McAvoy. 

Zadorov, a 6’6, 248 lb man mountain, has smartly shut down comparisons to a previous McAvoy partner, 6’9 Slovakian icon Zdeno Chara. “Please do not ever call me ‘Big Z’ now,” Zadorov said in an introductory Zoom call. “He’s one of the best defensemen of all time.” Sweeney doesn’t need a Chara redux so much as a Matt Grzelcyk replacement.

It’d be unfair (and untrue) to say Grzelcyk was never a good match for McAvoy, but the main reason for the partnership was to spread McAvoy and top lefty Hampus Lindholm’s minutes over two pairs. Coach Jim Montgomery didn’t trust Grzelcyk and his 5’10, 180 lb frame when the chips were down; deadline acquisition Orlov replaced him on the first pair for the 2023 postseason before rookie Mason Lohrei did the same in 2024 as Grzelcyk watched from the press box.

Grzelcyk was a good servant of the club and a hometown kid, but the writing was on the wall after he and McAvoy’s share of high-danger chances plummeted from 65.12% in 2021-22 to 49.45% by 2023-24. Without elite regular reasons to cover for his playoff woes, Grzelcyk was allowed to walk in free agency to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, it’s up to Zadorov to fill out the top four. 

McAvoy isn’t the sort of defenseman who needs his hand held in his own zone; his two-way dominance makes him a rare beast in a league full of Erik Karlssons. With Zadorov riding shotgun, that part of his job will become much easier. McAvoy hasn’t played with a physical monster of his caliber since Chara left after the 2019-20 season, and by then, the Stanley Cup-winning captain was long past his Hall-of-Fame-worthy prime. With Zadorov around to do the hard work on the wall and in front of the net, the 26-year-old can focus on puck retrievals, exit passes, and, yes, offense.

Paying a premium for “playoff style” defensemen has ended in disaster before (any takers for Jacob Trouba?), but the Bruins needed one. The Panthers forechecked them out of the postseason in consecutive years, but it’s hard to imagine Sam Bennett running roughshod over Zadorov, who makes his living burying players; he has recorded at least 174 checks in each of the past seven seasons.

Perhaps most importantly, the new guy ensures Boston’s excellent second pair of Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo (combined +134 since 2022-23) remains unchanged next season, giving Montgomery two bonafide shutdown options. 

At face value, committing 14.5% of a team’s cap space to a pair of 29-year-olds that has had its share of peaks and valleys is a risk. Take off your accounting visor and consider why the Bruins failed last season. Pastrnak and McAvoy were tasked with elevating overmatched teammates and struggled in the postseason as a result. Elias Lindholm and Zadorov give either player his perfect foil and will allow Coyle, Zacha, and Hampus Lindholm (no relation) to take a breath in their natural roles. It was a gamble Sweeney couldn’t afford to pass up, and it might take the Bruins right back to the summit of the Eastern Conference.