Rumor: Lindholm of interest to the Oilers but is he the answer to Draisaitl's needs?
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HOW WOULD LINDHOLM RANK AS AN OILER?
The last three seasons, Lindholm has scored at a pace of 31G-41A-72P over 82 games. This would’ve ranked third, third, and fifth on the Oilers, making him a high-end producer on this team.
Among all NHL players who have played 800 minutes 5v5 the last three full seasons, Lindholm ranks 26th by GF% (60.76 GF%), and 43rd by xGF% (56.09 xGF%). On the Oilers his GF% would rank first among the top six forwards, and by xGF% he would rank second to Connor McDavid. His six-year average SH% of 12.13% (dragged down by the first year of the sample) would rank him fourth among the Oilers’ top six.
These stats suggests he is a quality player at outperforming his competition. But exactly how much competition has he faced over the years?
LINDHOLM’S TEAMMATES AND COMPETITION
According to PuckIQ, Lindholm has faced the second highest competition of any Flames forward this season, facing ~25% more elites than low-end competition. That is a whopping ~40% more time vs elites than his average the last three seasons, during which time he also played the hardest average competition of any Flame.
Now, how did the trio of Lindholm, Gaudreau, and Tkachuk do with and without each other in their last three seasons together?
Looking into Lindholm, a player of interest to the #Oilers as per Bob Stauffer.
— Mark 📸 (@TheLineBlender) January 27, 2024
Lindholm helped elevate the Tkachuk-Lindholm-Gaudreau top line, particularly their SH% and faceoff %.
Note, the Tkachuk-Gaudreau sample is small and requires a grain of salt. pic.twitter.com/Tvrynvn5QM
It's clear how elite the Tkachuk-Lindholm-Gaudreau line was, as a line where Lindholm played centre but did not take all of the transitional duties. Most notably, the shooting and faceoff percentages of the line were high-end with Lindholm, and suffered without him. The Tkachuk-Gaudreau combination without Lindholm was a much smaller sample size of only 172 minutes 5v5, and were excellent but should be taken with a grain of salt. Lindholm also fared well without either of the other two players.
Would this be a fit on Leon’s line?