Source: ‘If Lindholm’s Available Next Month, Bruins Will Circle Back’

If Calgary Flames center Elias Lindholm is still available on the NHL trade market next month, an NHL source tells Boston Hockey Now, the Boston Bruins are expected to be in on him again.

“If Lindholm’s available next month, Bruins will circle back,” the trusted source told BHN on Thursday. “I think that was kind of the understanding with any interested team, but I know some are wondering if the Flames will sign him before camp now.”

There have been numerous reports in recent weeks that contract talks between the Calgary Flames and the 28-year-old center, slated to become an unrestricted free agent next July 1, have picked up. Here’s NHL insider Frank Seravalli this past Tuesday:

“Calgary is still making a pitch, making a push to get Elias Lindholm signed,” Seravalli said. “I think it’s unfair to say that there’s been significant progress made, but I do think that perhaps the Lindholm camp is listening a little more intently than they were back when the summer first started.”

The Calgary Flames are doing what they can to keep Elias Lindholm #Flames

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— Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) August 22, 2023

Back on July 28, another trusted NHL source told BHN that if the Boston Bruins did want to pry Lindholm away from the Flames, the NHL trade cost would likely need to include Bruins winger Jake DeBrusk.

“If the Bruins want Lindholm, likely [Jake] DeBrusk. They don’t want any picks, and the Bruins have none. They want a scoring winger that can make up for [Tyler] Toffoli being traded. There’s probably more that would be in that trade, but DeBrusk would be the target, I think,” that source said just under a month ago.

DeBrusk is entering the final season of a two-year, $8 million contract and is coming out of a season in which he scored 27 goals and had 23 assists in 64 games.

If the Bruins were to acquire Lindholm on the NHL trade market and wanted to extend him past next season, it would cost them a hefty raise for Lindholm, who is entering the final season of a six-year, $29.1 million contract that carried a $4.8 million salary cap hit. Elias Lindholm had 22 goals and 42 assists in 80 games this past season but had a career season in 2021-22 with 42 goals and 40 assists in 82 games. The 6-foot-1, 202-pound pivot was drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes fifth overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and has 203 goals and 310 assists in 743 games in the NHL.