The Anaheim Ducks ended a stalemate and locked up a key piece of their future by inking restricted free agent defenceman Hampus Lindholm to a six-year, $31.5-million contract Thursday.
The 22-year-old Swede has shone with the Ducks in his young NHL career. Lindholm doesn’t put up quite the level of offence as teammates Sami Vatanen or Cam Fowler, but he was second on his team in ice time, averaging 22 minutes per game, he led all Ducks in blocked shots with 115, and his advanced stats were the most impressive of all Ducks blueliners last season.
He missed eight games during his holdout, so expectations of him will be raised. With that in mind, here are a handful of players with similar contracts that Lindholm will likely be compared to in the coming years.
Morgan Rielly (six years, $30 million, $5 million cap hit)
There are plenty of similarities between Rielly and Lindholm, both swift-skating, intelligent, left-shot defencemen. Rielly was selected fifth overall in 2012, while Lindholm was taken with the very next pick. Their stats are remarkably similar. Rielly has registered 19 goals, 77 assists, 96 points through 242 career games. Lindholm has 23 goals, 69 assists, 92 points in 236 games. Lindholm has been surrounded by more talent in the NHL, but these contemporaries will play vital roles on their respective teams in the years ahead.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson (six years, $33 million, $5.5 million cap hit)
Ekman-Larsson, 25, is essentially what Lindholm aims to be three years from now. The sixth-overall pick from the 2009 NHL Draft has developed into a Norris contender. Lindholm and Ekman-Larsson were teammates on Sweden during the World Cup of Hockey even though Lindholm was the odd man out on that stacked back end and never saw game action.
Rasmus Ristolainen (six years, $32.4 million, $5.4 million cap hit)
Like Lindholm, Ristolainen was an RFA holdout during training camp and pre-season before agreeing to his six-year deal one day before the 2016-17 campaign got underway. The 6-foot-4 Finn was drafted eighth overall by the Sabres in 2013 and has steadily improved each year. He’s not as defensively responsible as Lindholm, but he helps generate plenty of offence – six assists in his first five games this season.
Seth Jones (six years, $32.4 million, $5.4 million cap hit)
The 21-year-old is one of the top young players in the league. The fourth-overall pick from 2013 was doing well in Nashville and has gotten even better since being acquired from the Nashville Predators for Ryan Johansen midway through last season. Moving to the Blue Jackets resulted in an expanded role, more ice time and increased production.
Torey Krug (four years, $21 million, $5.25 million cap hit)
The 25-year-old has been a consistent offensive threat from the back end and an excellent power-play quarterback since the undrafted free agent joined the team back in 2013. He had a career high 44 points in 81 games last season and it earned him his lucrative contract.
Other cap comparables:
— Erik Johnson, seven years, $42 million, $6 million cap hit
— Dougie Hamilton, six years, $34.5 million, $5.75 million cap hit
— Tobias Enstrom, five years, $28.75 million, $5.75 million cap hit
— Matt Niskanen, seven years, $40.25 million, $5.75 million cap hit
— Marc Staal, six years, $34.2 million, $5.7 million cap hit
— Nick Leddy, seven years, $38.5 million, $5.5 million cap hit
— Tyler Myers, seven years, $38.5 million, $5.5 million cap hit
— Jared Spurgeon, four years, $20.75 million, $5.19 cap hit
— Zach Bogosian, seven years, $36 million, $5.14 million cap hit
— Alexander Edler, six years, $30 million, $5 million cap hit
— Justin Faulk, six years, $29 million, $4.83 million cap hit
