TORONTO — Elias Lindholm was halfway between Mexico and Calgary Wednesday, some 35,000 feet in the air, when his wifi service clicked in and his phone blew up.
A flood of text messages and phone calls informed the No. 1 target on most trade boards that he’d been dealt to the No. 1 club in the standings.
“Going to Vancouver, one of the best teams in the league. So many good players, good goaltending, good defencemen,” Lindholm said Thursday in Toronto, sharing an all-star podium with new teammate Elias Pettersson.
“I’m super excited and can’t wait to get started.”
The Canucks were the most aggressive of a handful of teams pitching the Flames for Lindholm’s services, and Calgary GM Craig Conroy knew before the season began that the pending unrestricted free agent’s asking price was too steep, that this day would be inevitable.
After receiving a five-piece offer from Vancouver — a first-round pick, a conditional fourth-rounder, Andrei Kuzmenko, plus prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo — Conroy circled back to the other interested parties before pulling the trigger well ahead of the March 8 trade deadline.
Sure, the Canucks are a fierce division rival, but Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin’s group put together a package that could help Conroy now and in the future, a decent haul for a pure rental. And Conroy didn’t want to play this out any longer and risk Lindholm getting injured before a deal could be finalized.
Lindholm scrambled when he got home, packing two suitcases plus a suit bag for all-star weekend and his new club’s five-game road trip through the Eastern Conference that follows.
So “blurry” have the past 24 hours been, that Lindholm yet hasn’t considered the idea of signing with Vancouver beyond this spring.
“It’s still so fresh,” he said. “Haven’t really thought about that.”
Lindholm’s new coach, Rick Tocchet, has thought about how to deploy the onetime 82-point man.
“Quality guy. Two-hundred-foot guy that can play all positions. A righthanded draw is something we desperately needed, and I think he’s over 55 per cent, so he fits a need for us,” Tocchet said.
“I’m a puzzle guy, and he’s a big piece, right? He fits a puzzle for us. When you have those guys who played 200 feet that can score but also defend, that’s kind of the identity we’ve tried to play this year.”
Lindholm opens options for Tocchet’s top six. He can play wing alongside Pettersson, a second smart player to defend down low in the zone, or run his own line. He’s a superb penalty killer, and he can chip in on the power play.
“He’s a jack of all trades,” says Tocchet, who turned to a former winger of Lindholm’s for a scouting report.
“What do you think what about this guy?” Tocchet texted Matthew Tkachuk, upon hearing of the trade from his excited players.
“I love him,” Tkachuk texted back.
“So when Matthew Tkachuck says he loves the guy, you know he’s a good player,” Tocchet said.
Lindholm knew he was going to be traded shortly after New Year’s Day; he just didn’t know where or when.
He said he loved his time in Calgary, but didn’t dwell much on the past and admitted that skating this season through the unknown was stressful.
That pressure showed in a 2023-24 stat line that is decent — nine goals, 23 assists — but below Lindholm’s expectations.
Conroy expects “a lighter Elias right now” that the trade is complete.
And Lindholm, who had already been traded once — from Carolina to Calgary in 2018 — sounds like a man who had already wrapped his mind around switching sweaters.
“I was ready. I was prepared for anything,” he said.
Lindholm is not promising Canucks fans that he’s coming in to be a game-breaker, just a reliable role player with a defensive conscience. A man happy to find himself on the right side of the playoff cut line.
“Just a simple player, 200-foot guy. I’m not going to try to do anything extra,” Lindholm said. “Hopefully, it’s a good fit for me.
“Kinda had this in the back of my mind for a long time. So, I’m kinda happy it’s over with. Get a fresh start. Go to a really good team. Hopefully we can continue to do what they’ve been doing and have some fun later on.”
