[Rumour] Chris Johnston: Lindholm is interested in staying

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by dammage79

I'd do that SJ trade. EKLUND iMO is worth the sticker price. But that's just me. And I like Couture and velieve he's a solid Parise type who can be effective to the end.

I don't know.

If his last legs on a 8 million deal with 4 years left on it are 30 point seasons that is a big time pass for me even with a so-so prospect.

I would rather just pay Lindholm the 8.5 if that is what it takes to sign him. Not sure we even need a cap dump coming our way if we do trade him as his contract is easy to fit in now and we can eat half of it. THe team getting him and figure out the cap situation themselves.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

Didn't Eklund have a similar production to Zary in the AHL last year? I get Eklund has a much higher draft pedigree, and Eklund is a year younger, but I find him hard to project.

Zarys more accomplished on the Farm league. But I'll argue Zary isn't as Middling a prospect as the feeling seems to be here either.

Zary should be above Pelletier. The only thing separating them would be the position in which they played and the available room on the big club last season.

Zary was easily the best prospect put of camp last season. He should have made the team.

Having another Zary level prospect is a great thing. And Eklund produced at the NHL level last year. Super small sample size but 2g, 1a in 8 gp isn't bad. For a player 1 year younger.

[memphusk]

Originally Posted by Major Major

And a top 15 prospect league wide. And the dinosaur outscored the player we are trading last year. And he elevates in the playoffs. And he's a captain.

Gotta dump those salaries. Old guys making all the money just doesn't work.

[FanIn80]

I'm not quite up to speed on Eklund, but he kinda seems like another Pelletier/Zary/Coronato? Someone who seems like they could be top-six, but could just as easily be middle or bottom six?

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I'm not quite up to speed on Eklund, but he kinda seems like another Pelletier/Zary/Coronato? Someone who seems like they could be top-six, but could just as easily be middle or bottom six?

But having 4 of these types of guys allows for 1 or 2 to be somewhat of a bust and play 3rd line and hopefully you hit on 1 being a 1st line player.

I'd love to keep Lindholm but if we trade him, I'd way rather get Eklund than some elite teams lottery protected 1st in 24 as a key piece. Even if we have to take Couture.

Also having 4 young guys like this allows Conroy to take a hard look at Backlund, Mangiapane, Dube or any of our guys that will be wanting big raises or hitting an age where we just can't keep the player anymore.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I'm not quite up to speed on Eklund, but he kinda seems like another Pelletier/Zary/Coronato? Someone who seems like they could be top-six, but could just as easily be middle or bottom six?

Disagree.
Tremendous skill, had tough D+1 season, but his skill is much higher than those guys (except Coronato who I would say it's higher than but not a tons).

Great skater with strong hockey sense. I think he's a 2nd liner for sure. Upside of first liner though probably not an elite one.

Guys that have no question marks are simply not available in trades. A guy like Eklund would be a tremendous get. He is an MUCH better prospect with much higher upside than Zary or Pelletier. he would instantly become the Flames' #1 prospect.

[FanIn80]

Ok, well I'm on board then. My buddy's a Sharks fan and his response was "nooooooooo" when I sent him that link too lol.

[dissentowner]

To me that rumour never made sense for the Sharks. They are not a Lindholm away from contending and they have a long way to go to get there. Why are they trading their top young prospect?

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

To me that rumour never made sense for the Sharks. They are not a Lindholm away from contending and they have a long way to go to get there. Why are they trading their top young prospect?

I doubt it’s true but Smith Lindholm up the middle may be tempting to them

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Disagree.
Tremendous skill, had tough D+1 season, but his skill is much higher than those guys (except Coronato who I would say it's higher than but not a tons).

Great skater with strong hockey sense. I think he's a 2nd liner for sure. Upside of first liner though probably not an elite one.

Guys that have no question marks are simply not available in trades. A guy like Eklund would be a tremendous get. He is an MUCH better prospect with much higher upside than Zary or Pelletier. he would instantly become the Flames' #1 prospect.

Went a watched a feel of his reels on YouTube with everyone jibber jabbering about him and I walked away thinking of Sven Baertschi (in a good way - not in a post-Hartley, ruined confidence, troubling concussion-impacted play sort of way).

The guy has skill. He doesn't look particularly fast, but I always find that difficult to judge on AHL highlights.

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

I doubt it’s true but Smith Lindholm up the middle may be tempting to them

Hasn't Grier also said something along the lines that they aren't interested in a pro-longed rebuild?

*Edit: Seems so:

"We're not looking to tear this down, like Arizona (Coyotes) or some teams have done in the past," Grier said. "Yes, there are some challenges with the (NHL) salary cap, but I think the majority of the League is dealing with the flat cap and they have the [same] issue. So for us, we're not looking to rebuild ... there are a lot of 'R' words you could use.

A year onward, I suppose one of those 'R' words Grier is mentioning is...re-sucking?

[FanIn80]

All I know is we need cap space to sign Makar in 4-5 years. I guess Couture would come off the books around that same time...

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Zarys more accomplished on the Farm league. But I'll argue Zary isn't as Middling a prospect as the feeling seems to be here either.

Zary should be above Pelletier. The only thing separating them would be the position in which they played and the available room on the big club last season.

Zary was easily the best prospect put of camp last season. He should have made the team.

Having another Zary level prospect is a great thing. And Eklund produced at the NHL level last year. Super small sample size but 2g, 1a in 8 gp isn't bad. For a player 1 year younger.

100% THIS.

I feel Zary is quite underrated. He's learning a very hard position, and he's produced very well. He's got a chip on his shoulder, and he's cleaned up his deficiencies. He's a future #2, IMO.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Sandman

100% THIS.

I feel Zary is quite underrated. He's learning a very hard position, and he's produced very well. He's got a chip on his shoulder, and he's cleaned up his deficiencies. He's a future #2, IMO.

But again, which is too often the case in the Flames organization, we end up not knowing what a player/prospsect really is is due to lack of opportunity. I'm not nearly as high on Zary are you are, but we still need to see him play NHL games sooner than later to really know what he is. As recently as last year we had players like Pelletier, Duehr, Wolf, Valimaki, Phillips, Coronato and Zary being roadblocked at various times due to PTO players and/or underwhelming veteran players eating up roster space and minutes.

Some of this is on Daryll, but most of it is on the organization as it clearly is a trend that follows with other coaches. I'm very curious to see if Conroy finally ends this trend as he has intimated he would.

[Bingo]

But roadblocked why?

Maybe they just weren't ready? I know Pelletier was a huge disappointment in camp last year from what I was expecting - part of that from the insane vets play one night, rooks the next thing in the NHL, but he was underwhelming in Penticton and never really found his footing.

Zary was better but competing for a position that had little room (and none of Lindholm, Kadri or Backlund are PTO road blocks).

Can't imagine an organization would put up road bocks for ####s and giggles ... they didn't think they were ready. They likely weren't.

I always go back to Dustin Boyd on this site. He was being blocked too.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

To me that rumour never made sense for the Sharks. They are not a Lindholm away from contending and they have a long way to go to get there. Why are they trading their top young prospect?

They aren't.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

To me that rumour never made sense for the Sharks. They are not a Lindholm away from contending and they have a long way to go to get there. Why are they trading their top young prospect?

I would contend that Smith is their top young prospect.

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

All I know is we need cap space to sign Makar in 4-5 years. I guess Couture would come off the books around that same time...

The Flames should start rebuilding now if they want any shot at Makar. Unless they have some huge luck in the next 4-5 years the team will be pretty ugly by then.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Hackey

The Flames should start rebuilding now if they want any shot at Makar. Unless they have some huge luck in the next 4-5 years the team will be pretty ugly by then.

What makes you think Makar will leave Colorado?

[Winsor_Pilates]

I've shifted to sign Lindholm.
I don't like the age of our top long term contracts, I don't think the makeup of the team is a contender, but the trade market looks bad & we're not willing to rebuild, so that's the best we can expect (for better or worse).

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

What makes you think Makar will leave Colorado?

Who knows what he will do. If he is considering leaving though I'm sure its more enticing coming to a young up and coming team with contender potential as opposed to a team with its biggest contracts in guys in their mid 30s.