Don't get too comfortable, Elias.
According to a report, the Vancouver Canucks are debating flipping newly acquired center Elias Lindholm in a trade.
Canucks general manager Jim Rutherford is known to be quite aggressive. He got ahead of the market and acquired Nikita Zadorov early, and then struck again when he and Calgary Flames GM Craig Conroy agreed to a deal to send Andrei Kuzmenko and more to Calgary in exchange for Lindholm.
Now, The Athletic's Chris Johnston reports the Canucks are contemplating sending the center to the Boston Bruins.
Why?
Well, Johnston also states that the Canucks are in the mix for Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jake Guentzel. Seeing as Guentzel comes with a $6 million average annual value and the Canucks have no cap space, you could see why they need the room.
It sounds like this could become a three-team deal. The fact of the matter is the Penguins have a high price tag for Guentzel, and perhaps whatever Rutherford retrieves from Boston for Lindholm, he can use to acquire Guentzel.
"I'm told right before jumping on here that the plan now is to move him," David Pagnotta said on NHL Network. "He will be traded ahead of the deadline, they don't really have a choice at this stage. They tried to wait as long as they could, he's expected to come off LTIR on March 10th. From what I'm hearing, he's progressed well, he's ready to go. The expectation now, the next game he will play is likely to be in a different uniform. The asking price for Jake Guentzel? A first-round pick, a top-tier prospect who's ready to jump to the NHL or already has made the jump to the NHL and a third asset. That's how expensive the price tag is for Guentzel."
The Canucks have been hesitent to move their top prospects such as Jonathan Lekkerimäki or Tom Willander, however, we could finally see one of those two moved in a deal for the two-time 40-goal scorer.