NHL Rumors: The Vancouver Canucks and Pending UFA Elias Lindholm

Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Loser Thinking episode on Vancouver Canucks pending UFA forward Elias Lindholm.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Marek: “What about Elias Lindholm?”

Friedman: “I, so, remember a couple of weeks ago on the pod, I think it was actually during the playoffs, we said that, we talked about how the recruiting efforts from the Canucks players were pretty intense. You got to stay. You got to stay. You got to find a way to stay. I still think that that’s going on.

I, this is my guess, okay. I think the Canucks are willing to go in the seven times seven range. I’m just not sure it’s gonna get it done.”

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Marek: “Wow.”

Friedman: “I think the Canucks, I think the Canucks want this player.”

Marek: “That’s a big number man.”

Friedman: “Yeah. Now I was having an argument with someone. Someone said to me, someone said to me that, ‘why would you do that? You’ve got Pettersen at $11.6 (million). You’ve got Miller $8 (million). Why would you go to Lindholm at $7 (million)? Do you need your third-line center making $7 million?

And you know what I said to them, Jeff? I called it ‘loser thinking.’”

Marek: “Oh jeez, what is with you and loser thinking? Anything you disagree with his loser thinking. Remember when we’re supposed to say oh that’s not Stanley Cup habits. Oh, that’s not a Stanley Cup habit, Elliotte. Oh, you gotta clean it up, it’s not a Stanley cup, what’s with loser thinking?”

Everything I disagree with his loser thinking …”

Friedman: “Because you set a record for loser thinking at the beginning of this podcast.”

Marek: “Protecting assets is what I was doing.”

Friedman: “First of all you pay for good players. And secondly, secondly, you pay for positions sometimes too. And he’s a center.

But the other thing is, I see those three guys as flexible players. You can move them around. You can play Pettersson, Miller, Lindholm all down the middle, but you can move them to the wing. You can move them around.

Look how good Vancouver looked with those three guys in their lineup. If I have to stretch my dollars a little bit to keep those three guys in my lineup, I’ll do it and then I’ll figure out what I have to do to make it all work.

But I, this is my guess, I think Vancouver is willing to go into that range. I’m just not sure it gets it done. I don’t want to speak for Lindholm but I heard as tough as it started in Vancouver, I heard he really liked it there.”

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Marek: “Now, and he played great and it looked like he enjoyed it there and they enjoyed having him. And I’m with you on the flexibility. I mean you can mix and match and move these guys around. The cement hasn’t hardened around them in positions with the Vancouver Canucks.”