Seravalli on DFO Rundown: Calgary Flames ‘still making a push to get Elias Lindholm signed’
By Ryan Pike
11 months agoBrought to you by odds site Betway!
September is just around the corner and with the calendar flipping to that month comes the return of the National Hockey League as training camps are set to begin. Coming off a disappointing 2022-23 season, the Calgary Flames are a team that many expected to be busy this off-season reworking their roster. Aside from swapping Tyler Toffoli for Yegor Sharangovich, they’ve been quiet.
Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli provided an update on pending free agent centre Elias Lindholm on Monday’s new edition of the DFO Rundown podcast.
Here’s Frank:
“Calgary is still making a pitch, still making a push to get Elias Lindholm signed. And 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 bit more intently than they were back when the summer first started. So I think there’s a door open for the Flames to sign Lindholm. And then I think they’re hoping that if Lindholm re-signs and if the team gets off to a better start, that you’re going to see increased buy-in from some of these other guys.”
Lindholm is one of seven prominent Flames on an expiring contract after the 2023-24 season. One of them, Dillon Dube, will be a restricted free agent. The other six – Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Mikael Backlund, Nikita Zadorov, Chris Tanev and Oliver Kylington – could become unrestricted free agents on July 1, 2024.
Seravalli noted regarding Hanifin: “Hanifin is a non-starter, he’s definitely not re-signing.” And the Flames likely want to see how Kylington adapts after a year away from the game before talking contract with him. But many of the other pending free agents have taken a “let’s see what happens” attitude after a disappointing season that saw head coach Darryl Sutter and long-time general manager Brad Treliving leave after its conclusion.
If the atmosphere around the team is good and they have some on-ice success, it could potentially cajole some non-committal Flames players into re-upping with the club. And while the Flames were on the outside of the playoffs in 2022-23, they were a team that finished just three points out of the final Western Conference wild-card playoff spot despite a lot of different things going poorly for the club.
Seravalli made a comment that encapsulates some optimism regarding the club’s view of their 2023-24 fortunes.
“They believe that they can be a real bounce-back team right into the playoffs next year.”
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