Bruins sign Elias Lindholm to seven-year deal

The Bruins entered the summer knowing they needed an infusion of talent down the middle. It was the No. 1 thing that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney circled as his target when assessing where the Bruins needed to go after a step forward back into the second round last season, in fact.

And the Bruins believe they got what they needed on that front Monday when free agency began, with two-way center Elias Lindholm signed to a seven-year deal worth $7.75 million per season.

TSN's Darren Dreger was the first to report the news of Lindholm's signing, while The Athletic's Chris Johnston had the terms of the deal before anybody else.

Splitting last year with Calgary and Vancouver, the 29-year-old Lindholm put up 15 goals and 44 points in 75 games, and had six goals and 12 points in 26 games with Vancouver to close out his regular season run. And while the offensive numbers were a definite step back, the right-shooting Lindholm did finish strong in Vancouver with a postseason run that included five goals in 10 points in 13 games.

For the Bruins, the belief has to be that pairing Lindholm with some of the Bruins' star wingers — be it Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak, or maybe even both if they wanted to go with shades of the old Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Pastrnak line — will bring that point-per-game offensive production back to the table. After all, that was the case in Calgary when Lindholm played between Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, with a career-high 42 goals and 82 points during the 2021-22 season.

But Lindholm's value to the Bruins also comes within that aforementioned two-way game, with Lindholm having three top-10 Selke finishes to his name, including a second-place finish behind Bergeron in 2022.

Boston's desperation to get a center was always going to lead them to one of the market's big fish. And with a noticeable drop once you got beyond the group of Lindholm, Sean Monahan, and Chandler Stephenson — all of whom are probably better slotted No. 2 centers on Cup-contending teams — the Bruins simply couldn't afford to wait for the best deal possible.

With Lindholm in the fold, the Bruins now boast a center group that features Lindholm, Charlie Coyle, and Matt Poitras. The Bruins also have forwards who can rotate between wing and center, with Pavel Zacha, Morgan Geekie, and Trent Frederic all bouncing between wing and center for the club.

Originally drafted with the fifth overall pick in 2013, Lindholm has recorded 218 goals and 557 points in 818 career games between the Hurricanes, Flames, and Canucks.

A painfully condensed window between the 2024 NHL Draft and the start of free agency left the Bruins and the rest of the league scrambling to finalize their decisions ahead of Monday's free agent frenzy.

And for the Bruins, that came with decisions made on all seven of the Black and Gold's restricted free agents — a class headlined by goaltender Jeremy Swayman — made by 5 p.m. Sunday. And when it boiled down to it, the decision was a simple one in the sense that a qualifying offer meant that the player was sticking around with the Bruins, while a failure to tender a qualifying offer meant that the player would be free to sign with anybody as an unrestricted free agent beginning at 12 p.m. on July 1.

Now, in the no-brainer of no-brainers, the Bruins did extend a qualifying offer to Swayman.

An All-Star during the regular season, the 25-year-old Swayman (who said at break-up day that his plan was to remain in Boston for the summer) is set for a massive payday after a regular season that featured a 25-10-8 record and .916 save percentage.

That projected payday only grew during the 2024 postseason, too, where Swayman started all but one of Boston's 13 playoff games, and was one of the best goaltenders in the league throughout the postseason, with a .933 save percentage and staggering 13.3 goals saved above expected.

The belief is that Swayman, who is eligible for arbitration once again this summer (though the Bruins have outright admitted that they do not want to go that route again), may very well make $8 million per season on his next deal.

Up front, the Bruins also extended a qualifying offer to forward Marc McLaughlin.

The North Billerica, Mass. native scored in his lone NHL outing of the 2023-24 season, and has recorded four goals and 21 hits in 14 NHL games over the last three seasons. On the farm, McLaughlin posted eight goals and 14 points in 68 AHL contests, and has tallied 21 goals and 44 points in 135 total AHL games with Providence.

McLaughlin's qualifying offer checks in at $813,750.

On the blue line, Massachusetts native Michael Callahan was extended a qualifying offer following a 2023-24 season that featured four goals and 17 points in 70 games for the P-Bruins. Those figures were professional career-highs across the board for the 6-foot-2 left shot defenseman. Originally acquired in a trade with the Coyotes in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round pick, Callahan has made 140 appearances for Providence since 2022.

Callahan's qualifying offer is for $874,125.

Callahan was not the only B's defender extended a qualifying offer by Sunday's deadline, as the Bruins also extended one to Alec Regula. Added to the fold via last year's cap-clearing deal with the Blackhawks, Regula scored four goals and 26 points, along with a plus-36 rating, in 55 games for the P-Bruins. Regula’s plus-36 was not just tops among all Providence skaters, but also finished the year as the best mark in the entire American Hockey League.

The 6-foot-4 right shot's qualifying offer is for $813,750.

The most notable player to not be extended a qualifying offer by the Bruins, however, was speedy fourth-line forward Jesper Boqvist. Capable of playing both center and wing, Boqvist made 47 appearances for Boston in 2023-24, with six goals and 14 points over that NHL run. Boqvist also posted a career-best plus-12 rating, while his 71 hits were also a career-high, besting his previous high (50 in 2022-23) by 21 smacks.

The Bruins' decision to not qualify Boqvist means that he will be an unrestricted free agent, and that the Bruins have effectively moved on from at least two consistent members of their 2023-24 fourth line, with Jakub Lauko traded to Minnesota in last Saturday's deal to move up the board in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Draft.

In addition to Boqvist, the Bruins also decided not to extend qualifying offers to AHLers Joey Abate and Curtis Hall.

Hall, a fourth-round pick (No. 119 overall) of the club back in 2018, never quite seemed to find his footing with the organization, and will depart having scored just six goals and 16 points in 113 games with Providence.

In the case of Abate, however, his lack of a qualifying offer does not mean a departure from the organization as a whole, as the Bruins have announced that he will remain with the P-Bruins for the 2024-25 season.