Ideally, the Vancouver Canucks will re-sign Elias Lindholm to remain their third-line center. Unfortunately, it’s looking more and more likely he will price himself out of Vancouver and sign a lucrative long-term deal with another team in free agency. If that happens, general manager Patrik Allvin will find himself in a familiar spot entering the offseason, looking for a third pivot to set up shop behind JT Miller and Elias Pettersson. With that said, there are a couple of solid secondary options that might do what Lindholm did for almost half the cost.
Chandler Stephenson
Arguably the best option between these two names is Vegas Golden Knights Swiss Army knife Chandler Stephenson. Ever since he signed his four-year contract in 2020, he’s been the most budget-friendly forward in the NHL – especially when you look at his stat line of 67 goals and 251 points in 286 games. For that production, he was only getting paid an average annual value (AAV) of $2.75 million. He will almost surely get a massive raise on that number in free agency, but I don’t anticipate the $9 million AAV Lindholm is apparently commanding.
Related: 4 Defencemen the Canucks Should Target in Free Agency
Before Jack Eichel was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres in 2021, Stephenson was often the Golden Knights’ top-line center playing with the likes of Mark Stone, Reilly Smith, Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlsson. Throughout his time in Sin City, he has never dropped below 14 goals and has three 50-plus point seasons under his belt. His faceoff percentage is also quite impressive, averaging a 52.7 percent success rate – topping out at 58.1 percent last season when he had a career-high 65 points. That’s something the Canucks will be looking for to replace Lindholm on both the power play and penalty kill as he was dynamite in the circle clicking at 58.7 percent.
Stephenson has shown that he can play with high-end players, so he could also be an option to play alongside Pettersson when head coach Rick Tocchet wants to change things up. He also fits what Allvin has said he will be looking to add in free agency – speed.
Basically, Stephenson is the perfect replacement for Lindholm, and should cost way less to sign. According to AFPAnalytics, he’s set to earn $5.632 million AAV on a five-year deal, which falls well below the $7 million AAV that the Canucks were prepared to offer Lindholm.
Sean Monahan
For a man who looked like his career was taking a turn for the worse in 2021-22 when he put up only eight goals and 23 points in 65 games, Sean Monahan has turned it around and could be on the cusp of a pretty good payday. After playing 74 games in Montreal following a trade from the Calgary Flames, he seemed to rejuvenate his career with the Habs scoring 19 goals and 52 points. He also became an asset rather than a cap dump, netting Canadiens GM Kent Hughes a first-round pick at the 2024 Trade Deadline when he got sent to the Winnipeg Jets.
In Winnipeg, the 29-year-old continued his renaissance with another 13 goals in 34 games to finish the 2023-24 season with 26 goals and 59 points – his best totals since 2018-19 when he had 34 goals and 82 points. He has dealt with a lot of major injuries in the past few seasons (hip, wrist, groin, and back), but it seems like those are behind him. Signing him might be a risk, though, considering the Canucks’ recent bad luck with new acquisitions suffering injuries shortly after signing. However, if he’s healthy, he will bring a significant amount of size, work ethic and two-way play to the lineup.
Speaking of two-way play, like Stephenson, Monahan is adept at both the power play and penalty kill and can win faceoffs at critical times. He also finished with a faceoff percentage well above 50 percent at 54.9 percent and has the versatility to jump into the top-six when needed. As for what he will cost when it comes to the cap, AFPAnalytics has him earning $5.3168 million AAV on a four-year deal, which is very reasonable, and again much lower than Lindholm both in term and AAV.
Fans Should Be Confident in Allvin’s Ability to Find Lindholm’s Replacement
Even if Allvin can’t re-sign Lindholm, his recent history shows that he will probably find an adequate replacement for him either in free agency or the trade market. For the most part (except for Ilya Mikheyev), the trades and free agent signings he’s made have gone pretty well. From Dakota Joshua, Teddy Blueger, and Pius Suter to Nikita Zadorov and Sam Lafferty, fans should be confident that he will construct another winning roster for next season. Even with all the uncertainty surrounding Lindholm, we should still expect to see a very good (maybe even great) third-line center in the opening night lineup when the puck eventually drops in October.
