Bruins’ Sturm Eyes Top-Six Role for Elias Lindholm

Elias Lindholm‘s first two seasons with the Boston Bruins have failed to produce the results expected of a player signed to a seven-year, $54.25 million contract, but Bruins head coach Marco Sturm seems to have big plans for the veteran center heading into the 2026-27 season. Sturm is hoping the 31-year-old can remain healthy and bounce back to start the season strong. Sturm expressed that optimism when speaking with Evan Marinofsky, suggesting the Bruins believe there’s still plenty left in Lindholm’s tank.

When the Bruins originally signed Lindholm to the long-term deal, the reaction was lukewarm at best. Lindholm was coming off a down season split between the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks that saw him score just 15 goals and 44 points in 75 games. To his credit, Lindholm did score five goals and 10 points in 13 postseason games with the Canucks, but his regular-season totals had declined in consecutive seasons, and it was already a cause for concern.

Lindholm’s best season came during the 2021-22 campaign in Calgary, when he scored 42 goals and 82 points in 82 games. He followed that with 22 goals and 64 points in 80 games the following season before eventually having an even worse 2023-24 season. Despite this, the Bruins felt Lindholm has more to offer and opted to give him a long-term deal in an attempt to jump-start their team with a proven top-six center.

Unfortunately, Lindholm’s Bruins tenure has yet to produce the results expected of him, and that’s especially concerning with him just two years into this seven-year marriage. It’s even more concerning given that he’s dealt with an ongoing back injury throughout those two seasons.

Still, Sturm believes Lindholm can be a top-six player for the team next season.

Lindholm Still Has Sturm’s Trust

“I do think so, personally. I really hope so,” said Sturm when asked if Lindholm can be a top-six player. “I can’t look inside his body, but I think he says he felt good, had a good summer. Started skating again [with] no complaints, but hopefully it’s going to stay like that.”

Typically, players decline as they get older. Though the trope of players instantly declining at 30 years old isn’t necessarily true, it’s hard to ignore that Lindholm already saw his play decline prior to his age-30 season, before signing with the Bruins, and has continued to struggle ever since. That’s what makes Sturm’s assessment of Lindholm particularly interesting: he appears to see something in the veteran center that the broader consensus doesn’t.

“For me he’s still a reliable centerman who I trust,” Sturm said. “Yes, a lot of people would like him to score more goals and have more points, I get that, we all want that. He wants it, too. But also, he does a lot of good things. He plays a 200-foot. He plays a two-way game. He’s solid in his own end. We obviously want to get more out of him, but we don’t forget, he does a lot of good things that people don’t even see because a lot of people like to see more points. He’s still a big part of our team and if we can get a little bit more out of him, I think it will be great.”

It’s good that Sturm still has confidence in Lindholm given the team is committed to him for the long-haul. If there’s any hope of salvaging the deal, it will require giving Lindholm the opportunity and support to succeed. The Bruins also still need more help in their top-six forward group, and a healthy, productive Lindholm could go a long way toward addressing that need internally.

The issue is that a lot of the value being assigned to him by Sturm appears to be coming from past performance rather than what’s been the reality over the past season or two. Lindholm does offer value in a 200-foot role at times, but there are also times when he’s had difficulty making the kind of impact the Bruins need from him. Whether that’s been due to the injury, him losing a step as he gets older, or simply struggling to find his game, his overall impact hasn’t always been consistent.

Lindholm’s Path Forward

In the end, if Lindholm can somehow put his injury woes behind him and consistently be that 200-foot center who can produce closer to 20 goals and 55-60 points each season, he’d offer the team more value than he has thus far throughout his Bruins tenure. It’s worth noting that Lindholm scored nearly identical totals in each of his first two seasons with the Bruins, with 17 goals and 47 points in his first season and 17 goals and 48 points in his second, despite playing just 69 games last season.

When prorating those totals over an 82-game season, Lindholm did project for 20 goals and 57 points. It’s a far cry from the 42 goals and 82 points he scored with the Flames in 2021-22, but it’s also probably time to consider that season more of an outlier than the norm and accept that Lindholm’s value will have to come from outside of sheer point production.

Ultimately, the Bruins don’t need Lindholm to recreate his 2021-22 season in Calgary. They simply need to see enough of that player to justify continuing to rely on him in a top-six role. Finding a way to extract value from him rather than constantly bashing his production is the best-case scenario for all parties involved.

It’s also not Lindholm’s fault that the Bruins gave him the contract he’s currently playing on and it’s certainly not his fault that he’s been injured for two seasons. If he can get through his persistent back injury and find a way to bounce back for the Bruins, then the conversations surrounding him could be different next season. For now, he seems penciled into a top-six role for the Bruins one way or another to start the season.