Canes pass. Lindholm is what he was when they dumped him in Calgary 6 years ago. Now he's just older and a rental. Still cannot carry his own line, still needs elite talent around him to be a big producer.

Also, Carolina's total payment for rentals under Waddell and Dundon is a 3rd (Gostisbehere), Yegor Korshkov and Aidan Hreschuk (Domi) a 3rd, Janne Kuokkanen (Vatanen). Notice the theme here?

Umm, what?

Take out the 1st Boston declines. Even without their cap issues.

Make it Lindholm we’ll talk.

Absolute clown of a take as usual from you. Flames don't consider that trade

I get it is hard to accept, but for once he is actually right. Lindholm is a glorified 2C, whether you like it or not. He has had one year where he could be considered a 1C, and his numbers were very much carried by Gaudreau and Tkachuk that season.

Right so we can go ahead and call players like Roope Hintz glorified 2C's as well then? He's the 3rd best offensive player on his line too. Massive disrespect being thrown around here, yes obviously his points absolutely take a boost from playing with 2 exceptionally offensively gifted players. But Lindholm did a lot of heavy lifting defensively allowing those 2 players to run free offensively so much, there is a reason he got over 800 Selke votes and finished 2nd last year. Bergeron does the same thing for Marchand and Pasta (albeit Bergeron is certainly a better player but there are maybe 10 centers in the league better than Bergeron).

But there is a massive difference between Lindholm and guys like Hintz and Bergeron. A Hintz and Bergeron are capable of driving their own offense, on top of allowing their linemates to be more effective via their defensive prowess. Lindholm has flashes of driving his own offense, but he is not a play driver by nature. Career 2C with 1 year as a legitimate 1C, all the while being carried offensively by his wingers/linemates.

I completely disagree with this I think you drastically underrate him as a player and he is absolutely capable of driving offense. Of the 16 teams that made the playoffs this year he would have been the 1C on 5 of them (Islanders, Jets, Wild, Kings, Kraken). If you want to call him a 2C on a team like Colorado where they have a perennial superstar at 1C then sure but St. Louis proved that you can absolutely win the cup with a 1C of Lindholm's caliber at center

Seattle may very well be interested in Hanifin, but it's likely a non-starter if Evans is involved . . . Evdn more unlikely with only 1 year remaining on Hanifin's deal. Kraken likely to have little interest in Vladar, also.