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Which line will Canucks put Lindholm on and will he play centre?

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Feb 2 2024, 9:18 pm
Which line will Canucks put Lindholm on and will he play centre?
Elias Lindholm saying hello to Tate McRae at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto (Sportsnet)

Elias Lindholm brings a lot to the Vancouver Canucks, but where will he fit?

His arrival gives the Canucks three All-Star centres, meaning one of Lindholm, Elias Pettersson, or J.T. Miller will need to move to the wing.

Lindholm gives the Canucks plenty of options. He could centre the second line, allowing Rick Tocchet to reunite the lotto line. But judging from the comments from Canucks president Jim Rutherford, it sounds like he’ll start on a line with Pettersson.

“My thoughts, and I talked to Rick Tocchet briefly last night, we didn’t get into a lot of details but initially I would think that Lindholm and Pettersson will play together,” Rutherford said in an interview on Donnie and Dhali. “And then Toc’s gotta figure out who the [other] winger is. Is it gonna be [Pius] Suter? Is it gonna be [Ilya] Mikheyev? But for the most part, coaches usually talk about their lines in twos. They have pairs, and they’ve got interchangeable guys on the line. So I think it’s safe to say that Pettersson and Lindholm will play together.”

Assuming Lindholm and Pettersson do play together, it begs the question: which Elias is the centre on that line?

Both Lindholm and Pettersson have experience playing centre and wing, and both are excellent defensively. Lindholm was a Selke Trophy runner-up just two years ago though, and has better size at 6-foot-1 and 202 pounds.

Lindholm is one of the best in the league at faceoffs (55.5%), though Pettersson is much improved in that area this season (48.7%). Expect both players to take draws on their strong side, with the right-shot Lindholm taking faceoffs on the right side of the ice and the left-shot Pettersson taking faceoffs on the left.

So who will be the centre? Sounds like the answer will be both of them.

“I love a hybrid,” Tocchet told reporters in Toronto. “We’ll get the bingo balls and figure it out. Whether I play him with Petey or not, it’s pretty nice that you got one guy that can take the right side of the draw and the other, left. Petey’s really good on both but he’s good on the left. It’s also nice when another guy can go down low. If you come back in your own zone… whether I play him with Pettersson or not, he can go low, either one.

“That’s a luxury for a coach.”

Whichever player is back in their zone first can take the defensive responsibility that the centre usually has, while the faceoff will be merely dependent on which side of the ice they’re on.

“The right-handed draw is something that we desperately needed,” Tocchet stressed. The Canucks didn’t have a right-shot centre outside of Sam Lafferty, who doesn’t excel at faceoffs and is often used on the wing.

It will also be interesting to see which trio Tocchet chooses to play against the other teams’ best lines. J.T. Miller has primarily been Vancouver’s matchup centre this season, though he is known more for his offensive ability than his defensive prowess. Subbing out Andrei Kuzmenko for Lindholm could make Pettersson’s line the best option to go up against the likes of Connor McDavid or Nathan MacKinnon going forward.

Tocchet called Lindholm a “jack of all trades” and noted that he is a “great penalty killer.” Indeed, he led all Flames forwards in shorthanded ice time. The Canucks’ PK is much improved this season, but still only ranks 15th in the NHL at 80%.

Needless to say, Tocchet is excited to have Lindholm in his lineup.

“To win, you have to have those guys that can play 200 feet, that also can score. But also defend. That’s kind of the identity that we’ve tried to play this way this year.”

 

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