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Report: Calgary Flames interested in Elias Lindholm

June 21, 2018, 10:28 AM ET [161 Comments]
Todd Cordell
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With the NHL draft just a day away, and free agency soon to follow, rumors are really starting to heat up.

The latest and greatest has the Calgary Flames linked to the Carolina Hurricanes.

In Wednesday's edition of TSN's Insider Trading, ~a minute was spent talking about a potential deal between the two sides.

The whole segment is worth a watch, of course, but here is a quick bullet point summary:

• Carolina wants to sign Elias Lindholm but ready to move on if no deal can be reached
• One of the teams that has expressed interest in Lindholm is Calgary
• Names such as Noah Hanifin and Dougie Hamilton could be involved in a bigger deal

There's a lot to unpack here. We'll start with the Lindholm interest. To me, it makes a lot of sense. He has put up 89 points in 153 games over the last two seasons, which equates to ~48 per 82 games. That's solid production.

At 5v5, he put up 26 points in 2017-18. That'd put him a point behind Dougie Hamilton and Mikael Backlund for 5th on the Flames.

At 5v5, he put up 28 points in 2016-17. That would have tied him with Backlund for 5th on the Flames.

He's not a dynamic offensive player but he's a solid offensive player. He's also positively impacted Carolina's shot attempt and scoring chance numbers in three of the last four years.

On top of all that, he's a right-handed shot who can play center or wing and he's still just 23 years old. Oh, and there's the Bill Peters factor as well.

Lindholm checks off a lot of boxes.

Now to the Dougie Hamilton stuff. First and foremost, it makes sense that Carolina would have significant interest in Hamilton. He's a fantastic player and the numbers paint an even brighter picture than the eye test, which is also positive. The Hurricanes are an analytically friendly team and no doubt very aware of how highly the numbers think of him.

If the Flames are trading Hamilton with Lindholm being the key piece coming back, that'd be extremely disappointing. Hamilton has tallied more goals and points than Lindholm over the last two seasons while posting elite underlying numbers despite facing stiff competition on a nightly basis. He's an undisputed top pairing guy locked up on a team friendly deal. Players like Hamilton don't grow on trees.

Now, if Noah Hanifin is also involved in some sort of mega deal you can at least start to justify it.

Hanifin's point totals, Relative Corsi For%, and Relative Scoring Chance For% have increased each season in the league. At 21, there is still plenty of room for growth, too.

I'm really interested to see what, if anything, comes of these rumors.

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