EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — In Boston, Hampus Lindholm has planted himself in his new NHL home and is enjoying the spoils of playing for an Original Six team in a fervent sports-loving city. It didn’t take long for him to find a third-floor condominium in the North End. He’s out to dig further into the Hanover Street restaurant scene where he counts Bricco and Strega as two of his early favorites.
“It’s hard to pick one,” Lindholm said. “There’s a lot of good spots. I still have some more to try out.”
Upon his return to Southern California, Lindholm arrived in drier weather than a surprisingly mild Fenway Park where he played in the Winter Classic. He’s used to Boston being more like his native Sweden in the winter. Rainstorms throughout the greater Los Angeles area were a change from what he had grown accustomed to, even in January.
“I don’t think I like it as much over here,” he said, smiling. “It is supposed to be sunshine.”
But as he revisits Anaheim on Sunday and plays in the old home that was Honda Center, Lindholm couldn’t be happier these days. The Bruins, the team he joined in a trade last March, has the NHL’s best record at 31-4-4. The Ducks, whose defense he became a vital part of over the course of nine seasons, have the league’s third-worst mark at 12-24-4.
If it feels as if Lindholm was handed a lottery ticket when first-year Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek parted with him for a return that could take some time to start balancing out, well, he isn’t going to say that.
Hampus Lindholm walks to the ice during a practice day ahead of the 2023 Winter Classic. (Bob DeChiara/USA Today)
“I don’t look at it that way,” Lindholm said The Athletic. “Of course, it’s normal to have thoughts when you look at the standings and all that. At least in my mind, I’m thinking if I stayed in Anaheim, it would have been a different situation. Depending on the route you take, it’s what you make it. Right now, I’m just trying to be present in where I am and what I’m doing. And I’m super happy in Boston and everything that comes with it. I don’t really try to think and look at it like that.
“I’ve moved on. I’m doing my thing and they’re doing their thing. That’s kind of like where my head is at.”
Charlie McAvoy shakes his head. He had an idea of how good of a player Lindholm was. But not really.
“Since I’ve come in (the NHL), honestly I don’t pay attention very much to out here,” McAvoy said following a recent Bruins practice. “It’s harder. The time change. It’s everything. It’s out west. I remember last year we played against them in Anaheim. He was the best player on the ice. I was like, ‘This Lindholm is really good.’ And it was the first time I ever really, like, noticed him. … Later on in the year, the deadline came around and we got Lindy.
“Now I’m able to see every single day what he does and what he brings. For him to have played in as many games as he has — he’s been in the league since he was 19 — he’s got tons of experience. Amazing guy and an unbelievable player. Subtly, he is so good at everything. There’s not one thing that he’s not good at. He’s a complete, well-rounded, all-around defenseman. Just really special.”
After Boston acquired him just ahead of the 2022 deadline, Lindholm started to leave his imprint. He had a plus-10 rating to go with five assists in 10 contests as Boston prepared for the playoffs — a place the rangy defenseman had been to in his first five seasons with Anaheim. He also got banged up down the stretch, with another 10 games missed to deal with injuries. And in their seven-game playoff series against Carolina, Lindholm wasn’t available for Games 3-5 after suffering an upper-body ailment in a Game 2 defeat.
To this point in 2022-23, Boston is getting the version that’s at full health. Lindholm is having the best start of his career. Plus-minus is no longer a be-all, end-all statistic but defensemen still pay much attention to it and his plus-27 at even strength currently leads the NHL. He has provided offense from the B’s blue line and is on a 57-point pace that would shatter his previous best. His possession numbers and advanced defensive metrics have returned to the high levels that defined his early years with the Ducks.
They’re not always a pair but the Bruins have two all-situations horses in Lindholm and McAvoy as they’re set on the end goal that would be a seventh Stanley Cup. Including Saturday’s 4-2 win at San Jose, Boston has allowed a league-low 87 goals and possesses a plus-62 goal differential. Lindholm’s average ice time of 23 minutes, 48 seconds leads the team.
“I always thought Hampus Lindholm is a really good hockey player,” said Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who replaced current Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy last summer. “I didn’t know he was an elite player in this league. He has taken his game to another level, no question in my mind. I think he is someone that is dynamite to help your offense and he is still the elite defender that he was in Anaheim and kills a lot of plays. We’re very blessed to have him.”
Lindholm’s value was never more noticeable than at the opening of this 2022-23 season. The Bruins didn’t have McAvoy on the blue line until Nov. 10, a span of the first 13 games. In addition, Brad Marchand was out for the first seven contests. Boston started with 10 wins in 11 games, pushed it to 17 in 19 and has been on a rampaging run since. Lindholm was in the middle of it all, putting up 13 points in his first 11 contests. The offensive has slowed down some now that McAvoy is back, but the impact is still felt.
“I don’t think we got off to the start we had with Charlie being out without him playing the minutes he played,” Montgomery said. “I think he was top 10 in minutes before Charlie got back and he was third or fourth in scoring among defensemen with a plus-20 on the ice. He’s incredible. He’s been great for us.”
Lindholm is being noticed more than ever. Die-hard hockey fans knew him. Ducks fans that loved him to the point of wearing his No. 47 jersey knew what the franchise had. But being on the East Coast in a hockey-loving market is giving the Swede the widespread attention he’s long deserved.
“Obviously, you have a little more spotlight on you,” said Lindholm, who immediately signed an eight-year contract extension worth $52 million following the trade. “And also now, maybe I was a little more ready for it coming in. Playing in Anaheim for that many years and coming into Boston, obviously there is more pressure playing for an Original Six team. I love it. It’s so much fun having people care about what you do out there. Obviously, I have my contract.
“I’m just out there having fun. Want to win hockey games and want to win something for the fans and the team. I’m just enjoying hockey right now. I’ve been trying to have the same mindset my whole career and I guess now I’m more in a situation that it showcases it a little bit more.”
Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm. (Winslow Townson/USA Today)
It isn’t as if his talents were ignored or left unappreciated on the West Coast, but those who couldn’t stay up to watch Ducks games or simply didn’t have an interest in them are now getting the full view of what Lindholm has. always been.
“It’s a different market,” McAvoy said. “Obviously, an Original Six team in Boston. But (fans) had no idea. And that’s me included, because I think it’s harder out east to follow it out here. It just is. They’re smart fans. They understand the game. They know the game. So, Boston fans realize what we have. We got a really special defenseman.
“It’s crazy how it all worked out. We got him at the deadline and then immediately got him signed. We’re both in the first year of our eight-year deals. We’re in it for the long haul. I’ll tell you, there’s nobody I’d rather be in it with. Amazing.”
The situations between the Bruins and Ducks couldn’t be any more different.
Boston is all in, trying to get Patrice Bergeron and other veterans like Marchand and David Krejci another Cup before it’s too late. Anaheim is in the thick of a painful rebuild as it transitions to a younger core fronted by Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, Mason McTavish and Jamie Drysdale. The remaining links to the Ducks’ last playoff squad in 2018-19 are John Gibson, Cam Fowler, Adam Henrique, Derek Grant and Jakob Silfverberg.
Now they’re a last-place club, the worst defensive team in the NHL. Maybe the focus on the future is by design with a chance to add another top-five talent in this year’s draft, one that might include phenom Connor Bedard with some lottery luck. It’s not as if the Ducks were winning at the end of Lindholm’s run with them. But it’s obvious that he would be an improvement in their substandard defense corps.
The Bruins simply made the kind of commitment Verbeek was unwilling to make. There were offers — the Ducks were willing to pay more than the $6.5 million AAV in his current deal — but they didn’t go more than five years in length. And the 28-year-old Lindholm, who often lives by the credo of controlling the things he can control, started preparing his mind last spring when it was apparent the difference between five and eight years wasn’t going to be bridged.
“I would say it’s not easy because I knew if I was getting traded, the team probably wouldn’t sign me,” Lindholm told The Athletic. “And that’s not always an easy situation because I haven’t been anywhere else. So that was tough for me. And I think that’s why there was a big chance maybe thinking that I could possibly stay. But they made it pretty clear and quick that I don’t think they wanted to commit to me for those years that other teams were doing.
“That made it pretty easy for me to move on because obviously we all knew the situation even last year. They made it pretty clear. But they still made some kind of effort.”
Whether it was as part of the rebuilding effort in Anaheim or in trying to maintain the years of competitive play in Boston, Lindholm felt as if he would come out with a net positive. But now that he’s wearing No. 27 for a title-seeking club that had interest in him long before the trade, he says, “If I knew all this that I know now, it would have been a no-brainer. But you don’t know it back then. It’s a little scary trying to just jump in like you’re blindfolded. It’s not always that easy.”
When Lindholm arrived in Anaheim, the franchise entered a run of five straight division titles. He became a shutdown fixture on the defense and was at the heart of the Western Conference final runs in 2015 and 2017. He’s obviously aware of the Ducks’ current struggles and how he represents a change in direction under Verbeek. He can feel bad about what they are not but also not feel sorry for them.
“We had some really good teams,” he said. “Obviously being young and being in Anaheim, a market where maybe it’s not like that hockey nerdish environment, like you don’t feel the fans or the city maybe behind you as much as you do in Boston. I just think that maybe I didn’t realize how fortunate I was to come into the league with such a good team those first couple of years. That was the one thing looking back. But at the same time, I learned so much from it. Being around those guys and that team. All the guys we had in that locker room.
“I cherish it all. It’s been a great journey. Met some really good family and friends around this area. It was a great time. And that made me ready for this awesome silver lining and get me ready for Boston.”
(Top photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
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