I just think it’ll be a distraction. Cue the Francis constant questioning every game if Lindholm is staying.
I get both sides. One on hand, forget the crappy return and just play out the season. On the other hand, trade him and just move on from yet another core piece that didn’t work out. Hopefully, we can have a contender pony up at the deadline. That seems to be the new motive, throw the assets midseason. We saw it with the Isles/Horvat and Boston threw out assets to grab Bertuzzi, Toronto with ROR, etc.
The more I think about it, the more I’m fine with riding out Lindholm until the TDL. There’s a benefit now to not adding 8-9m of cap, as long as you’re utilizing it to either improve the team with a top end player or taking on a bad contract with 1-2 expiration + assets.
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