Fantasy Take: Vancouver Lands Elias Lindholm from Flames for Andrei Kuzmenko

Alexander MacLean

2024-01-31

The Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks swung a big intra-division trade, that saw Elias Lindholm as the big piece land in Vancouver. It's not the first time this season the two have swung a deal, and that familiarity likely helped get this one across the line. Andrei Kuzmenko's no-trade clause could have held this up, but the teams got it over the finish line.

What the Canucks Get:

Lindholm is a top-six centre, and it seems more likely that he lines up with Elias Pettersson to take the faceoff pressure off of him, as well as some of the defensive responsibilities. This is the easiest slotting as he would replace Andrei Kuzmenko on that line. J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, and Pius Suter will likely stay together at even strength, but this likely bumps Pius Suter from the top power play unit. Luckily for him, the majority of his production has been at even strength, so he doesn't stand to lose too much value.

Lindholm should help elevate Pettersson's game, but taking some of the weight off of him and providing him with more options. It may not have a strong impact on Pettersson's production, but it should have a positive impact on Lindholm's without seeing him dip in shot volume or overall time on ice.

The Canucks have also created $650K in cap space, which should help them with any further acquisitions before the deadline.

What the Flames Get:

A few questions to begin with. Namely: Who are the four centres going to be? Where is Andrei Kuzmenko going to slot in? And who is next to be traded?

Andrei Kuzmenko scored at a 74-point-pace last season, but that has nearly-halved this year. His ice time has dropped, and he saw a regression to the mean with his shooting percentages. If he didn't have the inflated underlying numbers, then the numbers from last year wouldn't have been as good, however with some added ice time this year's numbers would be higher as well. The real Kuzmenko probably slots in around a 55-point-player, assuming he can mesh with the rest of the Flames' lineup.

Looking at possible centres for Kuzmenko, Nazem Kadri and Mikael Backlund are both top-six centres, so that shouldn't be an issue. Where it gets complicated for Calgary is that they don't have two bottom-six centres. They had one in Adam Ruzicka, but he was recently claimed on waivers by Arizona. Cole Schwindt has all of three games and five faceoff wins of experience in the NHL, and otherwise someone like Blake Coleman or Yegor Sharangovich will have to play out of position. This creates a trickle-down effect of not getting the most out of players. Bottom line: not a great recipe for fantasy success in Calgary in the second half.

On the other hand, can this really drop Jonathan Huberdeau's value any further? Maybe this helps for some yet unknown reason…

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Calgary is also receiving Hunter Brzustewicz as part of the deal, who is having an exceptional offensive season in the OHL. He may be fantasy relevant in a few years, but he's only someone to know about in dynasty leagues in the meantime.

Players this helps (ordered most to least):

Elias Lindholm

Andrei Kuzmenko

Players this hurts:

Jonathan Huberdeau

Pius Suter

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