Hours before Boston sports' greatest owner, Wyck Grusbeck, announced his family was selling the Boston Celtics, often unfairly maligned Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs seemed to open his checkbook and say, “Fans, don't forget the Black and Gold.”
On the first day of NHL free agency on Monday, the Bruins signed arguably the best center on the market, Elias Lindholm, with a seven-year, $54.25 million contract. Based on salary-cap hits ($7.75 million per year), it's the largest contract the franchise has ever given to a rookie, making Lindholm Boston's third-highest-paid player behind superstar David Pastrnak and defenseman Charlie McAvoy.
This is a home run win.
Boston is in desperate need of a No. 1 center, and the 29-year-old Lindholm fits that role perfectly. He's a highly respected two-way player who's just two years removed from recording a 42-goal season that earned him Selke Trophy voting.
Remember how Stanley Cup champion Florida outplayed the Bruins on faceoffs in this year's Eastern Conference playoffs? Lindholm won 56 percent of his draws last season and 54 percent of his career draws, another important box checked for the new Bruins.
“I don't want to compare myself to Patrice Bergeron, but I feel like I can take some of what he's done,” Lindholm said. “If you look at the series against Florida, (Boston) is pretty even. They have a lot of good players, so if I come in and play my game, I can take this team to the next step and accomplish what we all want to accomplish.”
After the retirements of Bergeron and David Krejci, the B's tried to build a team from the wings, but good hockey clubs build their teams from the middle, and Lindholm is a foundational piece for pivots Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha to be in their natural positions. As with the pitching rotation, you want your No. 2 and No. 3 guys in the No. 2 and No. 3 positions.
“As soon as Boston was on the list, it was an easy decision for me,” Lindholm said.
The B's have been rumored to be in trade talks for Lindholm over the past few seasons, but the cost of this deal was all money, and the Jacobs family deserves credit for paying it (and they've paid it every offseason since the cap was implemented in 2005).
Additionally, if the final few years of Lindholm's contract are uncertain, by then the team would do well to develop a young backup center with the draft picks they saved by not trading him.
Boston followed up Lindholm's big contract with the addition of hulking defenseman Nikita Zadorov, a shutdown monster who stands 6-foot-6, 247 pounds and is due to receive $5 million over the next six seasons.
If those two voices remind you of when Boston acquired both Marc Savard and Zdeno Chara on July 1, 2006, you're not alone. Zadorov respects Chara and holds a similar status, but doesn't want to be compared to one of the greatest defensemen in franchise history.
“My old team used to call me 'Big Z.' Please don't call me 'Big Z' now,” Zadorov joked, knowing there can only be one 'Big Z' on Causeway Street.
If Lindholm's contract is an A, Zadorov's might be a B or B-minus. The Bruins have gotten bigger and stronger on defense, which they definitely need, but they're currently paying four defensemen more than $4 million a year, which might not be sustainable under the salary cap (none of this year's conference finalists have that many high-paid blue liners).
Zadorov, despite his strengths, doesn't contribute much offensively and doesn't play much on the power play, meaning Boston will have to rely on McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm, who were miserable with the numbers advantage last spring, to get back on track in assist numbers in 2022-23. It's a bit of a gamble, but rising star Mason Roley could be the answer.
Last week's Linus Ullmark trade was a cap-management misstep, hobbling the Bruins financially by re-acquiring Joonas Korpisalo as Jeremy Swayman's backup at a $3 million annual salary.
Many expect Swayman to sign a new contract soon in the $7-8 million range, meaning the B's will be spending $10-11 million a year on a goaltender. Of the 16 teams in this year's playoffs, only Florida and Tampa spent more than $10 million on a goaltender. …Not a winning formula. If they were planning to spend that much, why not just keep Ullmark until the end of his contract and sign Korpisalo for three more seasons?
That means there's still room for adjustment in both the goaltending and bottom-six forward groups, but on paper the Bruins are better now than they were when they lost to the Panthers on May 17. All it took was money, and the owner and GM should be commended for spending it.
Matt Williams has covered the Bruins for CNHI Sports Boston since 2008. Contact him at MWilliams@salemnews.com or follow him on Twitter/X @MattWilliams_SN.
