[Signing] Lindholm (7yrs, $7.75 mil AAV) and Zadorov (6x$5M) to Bruins

[gvitaly]

I expect Boston to get buyer's remorse pretty quickly here. That said, their defensive system, and forwards will help Z quite a bit. I still think that he will be a rollercoaster defensively.

As for Lindholm, it's an alright cap hit, but I also expect some frustration in Boston if they expect him to play like a 1C.

Didn't Boston sign Oyster(Oesterle) as well? I believe it was a 2-year league min, two-way deal.

[Flamesfan05]

Boston is going be like the Iginla Flames soon Pasta and a bunch of no good quick fixes.

Lindholm is as good as Pasta and Marchand can carry him
Zadorov is a bottom pairing dman with flashes both good and bad

[activeStick]

I think the Bruins will regret the Zadorov contract at some point given he's more of a bottom pairing guy who can sub into the 2nd pair temporarily if needed, but too many minutes against top players leaves him burned often. For Lindholm, he is good defensively and on the PK and so his relative low production offensively sometimes gets overlooked, especially when he gets put into a 2nd or 3rd line role. Having said all this, Boston has a real ability to bring players into their system and having them succeed/play at their best. The death of the Bruins has been predicted by everyone for at least 7-8 seasons and they just keep proving everyone they know more than us, so I would not be surprised at all if they continue to be a top team in the east for many more seasons.

[Flamesfan05]

They didn’t sign Lindholm to be their 3C
They don’t have a 1C so he needs to fill that or at least a 2C
Sure Lindholm can be as good as Backlund but Backlund ain’t winning you any thing

The Bruins can hang out on top being a pretender but they aren’t winning anything.

[dustygoon]

You know those twists and turns in your career where fortune smiles on you and helps in some way?

I have to think Conroy knows he flew close to the sun with his contract offers and is lucky they didn’t accept them.

Makes him better in the future. Carolina’s approach seems optimal. Hold onto draft picks and hold firm on contract offers.

[activeStick]

Zadorov always knows what to say to get the fanbase to like him.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1807847379561074890

[Coach]

Aggressively Medium Z?

[TheIronMaiden]

Now that the Cap Freeze era is over, I think that 5M will age just fine.
The cap is already predicted to rise 5% or more next season, and will likely continue to grow.

Yeah the 65th richest contract for D men in today's NHL is rich for Zadorov, but soon that will be standard fair for most 2nd paring D men.

[Paulie Walnuts]

I think we need to be careful about the cap just going up. The NBA didn't even have the increase they expected.

The Canadian TV deal is up in 2 years.

$5 million for 6 years for a 3rd pairing D is expensive

[Ba'alzamon]

My expectation is actually the opposite of a lot of folks here. Boston has a way of elevating players past any reasonable expectation, and not really for any reason anyone can discern.

Hampus Lindholm looked cooked, but Boston trades for him and the clock turns back five years and he's great again. Pavel Zacha was a scrub struggling to hit 35 points with horrendous underlying results; Boston acquires him and suddenly he's a 50-point guy. Taylor Hall collapsed again as soon as he left.

I fully expect Lindholm to get back to 70 or even 80 points, and Zadorov to post a new career high. That's just the way things always seem to work out for the Bruins.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

I think we need to be careful about the cap just going up. The NBA didn't even have the increase they expected.

The Canadian TV deal is up in 2 years.

$5 million for 6 years for a 3rd pairing D is expensive

the cap has been around for 20 years.

In that time it has gone up 16 years
It has been frozen 3 years
and it has gone down 1 year.

It has more than doubled in that 20 year span.

[Icantwhisper]

Originally Posted by activeStick

I think the Bruins will regret the Zadorov contract at some point given he's more of a bottom pairing guy who can sub into the 2nd pair temporarily if needed, but too many minutes against top players leaves him burned often. For Lindholm, he is good defensively and on the PK and so his relative low production offensively sometimes gets overlooked, especially when he gets put into a 2nd or 3rd line role. Having said all this, Boston has a real ability to bring players into their system and having them succeed/play at their best. The death of the Bruins has been predicted by everyone for at least 7-8 seasons and they just keep proving everyone they know more than us, so I would not be surprised at all if they continue to be a top team in the east for many more seasons.

It is pretty funny how many people on here think they know more than GM's of teams.
Nobody know the internal marching orders of each team and just judge every trade/signing in a vacuum. Could always go back to last years signings/trades and see how right everyone was.
Of course there are posters that crap on 31 teams and everything they do, then they can say "see how smart I am, I predicted 30 out of 31 teams would suck this year"

[Roof-Daddy]

I'd say these contracts are nasty looking, but it's the friggin Bruins.

They are pretty much as close as you can get to a perennial 100+ point team.

I'm sure they'll make it click


EDIT: I had to look, the Bruins have had 100+ points (or paced that way in shortened seasons) in 11 of the last 14 seasons and in the other three seasons they had 96, 93 and 95 points.

Wow, incredible.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

Now that the Cap Freeze era is over, I think that 5M will age just fine.
The cap is already predicted to rise 5% or more next season, and will likely continue to grow.

Yeah the 65th richest contract for D men in today's NHL is rich for Zadorov, but soon that will be standard fair for most 2nd paring D men.

“The cap is going up” is not a get out of jail free card to waste money.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by butterfly

“The cap is going up” is not a get out of jail free card to waste money.

You see, I don't think it's a waste of Money. I think that 5M what a 4/5 UFA Dman costs in today's NHL.

I also don't understand the wasted money point of view when the Bruins have one of the leanest Cap rosters in the NHL. They have a full playoff caliber roster and 8.6 Million to spare.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden

the cap has been around for 20 years.

In that time it has gone up 16 years
It has been frozen 3 years
and it has gone down 1 year.

It has more than doubled in that 20 year span.

The cap has kept going up because the value of sports rights for TV has continuously gone up dramatically.

But Rogers is reportedly losing a ton of money on the Canadian national deal which comes up in a couple of years. It doesn't seem inconceivable to me that they get the same or even less money on renewal.

Similarly, the ESPN/ABC deal in the US was signed in 2021, during peak "spend all the money to get streaming subscribers" fever. Getting the NHL for ESPN+ was viewed as a necessity/big win. I think when that comes up down the road there will be more focus on "do the economics of this deal work". Maybe it still goes up but I doubt the level of escalation we've previously seen continues.

[marsplasticeraser]

what's interesting to me is how boston is looking to replace bruin greats with very similar players but the new guys just aren't as good.

Bergeron > > Lindholm
Chara > > > > Zadorov

I wonder what the fanbase expectations are for these two guys? I suspect they're hoping for more than what htey're getting!

[Meers]

Kudos to Lindholm and Zadorov for getting paid. But, both salaries were a little over-the-top.

I suspect Boston will regret what it’s forking over to Zadorov sooner and Lindholm later.

Funny that the Bruins and Canucks basically swapped players.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

The cap has kept going up because the value of sports rights for TV has continuously gone up dramatically.

But Rogers is reportedly losing a ton of money on the Canadian national deal which comes up in a couple of years. It doesn't seem inconceivable to me that they get the same or even less money on renewal.

Similarly, the ESPN/ABC deal in the US was signed in 2021, during peak "spend all the money to get streaming subscribers" fever. Getting the NHL for ESPN+ was viewed as a necessity/big win. I think when that comes up down the road there will be more focus on "do the economics of this deal work". Maybe it still goes up but I doubt the level of escalation we've previously seen continues.

While the outlook for TV deals increasing in value looks pessimistic.

The outlook for revenue sharing looks better than ever the 4th lowest earning team ( AZ) moving to a new market, and the 2nd lowest earning team the (FLA) winning the cup should have a tangible benefit.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Zadorov always knows what to say to get the fanbase to like him.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1807847379561074890

Tell those Yanks that you come from far-off Eastern Lands and as such should be referred to as 'Big Zed.'

Solved. You're welcome.

Now. I'm off to cure Cancer, broker Peace in the Middle East and create the perfect Sandwich.