Seravalli: ‘A better than 50% shot’ that Calgary Flames sign Elias Lindholm to extension before opening night
By Ryan Pike
9 months agoThis past off-season for the Calgary Flames was full of conversations about the club’s future. There have been a lot of off-ice changes, notably a new general manager in Craig Conroy and a new head coach in Ryan Huska, but questions lingered about several pending 2024 unrestricted free agents.
One of those questions was answered favourably when Mikael Backlund signed a two-year contract extension and was named captain. Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, speaking on Monday’s edition of Barn Burner, suggested that the Elias Lindholm saga could soon conclude favourably as well.
Here’s Seravalli:
“Pinder, you were just talking about Vegas sports books and you won’t find this line there but I’m going to give you one. I think it’s a better than 50% shot, actually significantly better, that the Flames have Elias Lindholm locked up before opening night.”
The Flames began the 2023 off-season with seven prominent NHL roster players facing unrestricted free agency in the 2024 off-season: Tyler Toffoli, Mikael Backlund, Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev and Oliver Kylington. Coming off a 2022 off-season where the Flames ended up losing the services of Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, new GM Conroy noted that the team wasn’t going to go into the season with seven pending UFAs.
Well, Conroy’s to-do list has already gotten slimmed down from seven to five: Toffoli was traded to New Jersey during the weekend of the NHL Draft, and Backlund re-signed last week. Locking down Lindholm for the long-term would keep a big piece of the team under contract and give the team a clearer picture of how their salary structure will look for the foreseeable future.
We’ll see what the structure of a Lindholm extension looks like if… or perhaps when… such a thing comes to fruition.
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