Report: Boston Bruins Trade For Ducks Defenseman Hampus Lindholm

The Boston Bruins have executed the big move they needed ahead of the NHL trade deadline. The Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks have made an agreement to trade top pair left-shot defenseman Hampus Lindholm to the Black and Gold, per a Weekes bomb from NHL Network and ESPN analyst Kevin Weekes.

Weekes Bomb 🚨 https://t.co/Z3MUVcvFlA

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) March 19, 2022

Subsequent reports have the Boston Bruins giving up a 2022 first round pick, a 2023 second round pick, a 2024 second round pick, Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore in exchange for Lindholm, with the Ducks retaining 50 percent of his salary for cap purposes. That’s quite a haul but there’s most definitely extra in there for Anaheim taking on Moore’s contract from the Boston Bruins.

Hearing that Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore also going to Anaheim as part of the Lindholm trade https://t.co/c43WDD0ARq

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 19, 2022

As we wrote about earlier this week, the Ducks were the most logical trading partner for the Boston Bruins given that they had Lindholm and winger Rickard Rakell as big trade pieces. The 6-foot-3, 208-pound Lindholm has five goals and 22 points with an even plus/minus rating in 61 games while averaging 22:32 of ice time per game.

Lindholm serves as an immediate upgrade for a Boston back end that has struggled on the left side with both Matt Grzelcyk and Mike Reilly on the smaller side, and Derek Forbort struggling in recent weeks to be a shutdown defenseman when Boston needed him most in third period situations. A Bruins blue line with Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy at the top gives them two defensemen that will be able to play nearly half the game in the Stanley Cup playoffs with quality two-way play and puck-moving ability that Boston didn’t have last postseason.

Lindholm’s production hasn’t been quite as good as when he posted career highs of 13 goals and 31 points in the 2017-18 season, but he’s still a major upgrade for Boston and a player that can play at a very high level as a former sixth overall pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. The big question will be if the Boston Bruins will be able to retain Lindholm beyond this season as he approaches unrestricted free agency at the end of a five-year deal with Anaheim that paid him $5.2 million per season. If they can do that at a rate that doesn’t bust up their salary cap, this will be a big, big deal for the Black and Gold.