Discussing the Zadorov and Lindholm contract rumours: Canucks Conversation
18 days ago
On Friday’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal discussed some recent rumours regarding Vancouver’s front office and their free agents.
The tidbits came from Elliotte Friedman on Friday’s edition of 32 Thoughts.
“Maybe [Zadorov] believes he can get 6×6 on the open market and the discount is 5.5×6 — this would still be a really steep price and is a number you have to think twice about,” Harm stated. “If there’s a scenario where that number in his camp’s mind is 5.5 and the discount is 5 million, all of a sudden you’re getting to the territory of 5×5 or 5×6 years. It’s still a lot, but it’s not a crazy number anymore and you can seriously consider it. The discrepancy matters a lot.”
“I’m skeptical because this seems like it’s all in the mind of Zadorov’s camp,” Quads added. “The Canucks might believe if they go to the open market, they’re not going to get their number and are actually going to get what they’re saying is a discount, and want to go to free agency and circle back. These negotiations are very complicated and a ‘discount’ doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a team-friendly number that the Canucks are happy with. If it was, they’d have already signed him.”
“There’s so much to think about from a sequencing perspective because you only have a certain amount of cap dollars and you have other needs. When you’re making these potential offers for a Zadorov or a Lindholm, you have to map through and plan so many different scenarios. One of the most underrated parts of operating as a team in the offseason with multiple needs and some cap flexibility is, these decisions aren’t happening in a vacuum. Every decision has such a strong trickle-down effect on every other decision you have to make and every other target you may or may not be in on.”
Next up were the rumors around Lindholm.
“I’m not on board with a 7×7 for Elias Lindholm,” Quads asserted. “At best, you’re re-signing him to be your third-best center. I see people saying he can go up and play with Elias Pettersson or J.T. Miller; we saw that, and it wasn’t good. I know he was playing through injuries, but you can’t run that risk and say, ‘Well, he was hurt, so we think it’ll work out this time’ — you can’t run that risk when you’re paying this much for a player.”
“I’m with you,” agreed Harm. “For me, it’s the declining offence. I love what Lindholm brings to the table defensively; killing penalties, matchups, positionally he’s so smart and cerebral, but I just don’t think he drives enough offence. We’re talking about two straight years since his career-high season with Gaudreau and Tkachuk that his numbers have taken a significant hit offensively. He only had 23 5-on-5 points over 75 games this season, which is the same amount as Sam Lafferty and Teddy Blueger. It wasn’t a case of him creating chances and having good underlying numbers and he was just unlucky; there was a huge drop-off in his line’s ability to control play and create offence. He’s not a dynamic puck carrier, he’s not a flashy or particularly effective playmaker; his best skill set offensively is off the puck as a finisher, and that didn’t quite mesh. I worry about him not being able to live up to the offensive side of a 7×7.”
You can watch the full replay of the show below:
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