The statuses of defencemen Jacob Trouba (RFA demanding a trade) and Hampus Lindholm (RFA) were again a topic of conversation on Saturday’s Headlines segment during Hockey Night in Canada.
“Well Lindholm I’m still hearing they can’t close the gap and what remains the issue is Anaheim wants him below the $5.4 (million) that Rasmus Ristolainen got from Buffalo and Lindholm would like to be a little bit over,” said Elliotte Friedman.
“And Trouba, here in Winnipeg the word is Kevin Cheveldayoff’s ask for Trouba has not decreased so a lot of other GMs think that — December 1 is when Trouba’s gotta play by — and they think he’s going to use it as a pressure point to make a decision.”
While Trouba’s situation is unique in that he’s demanded a trade out of Winnipeg and will likely not wear a Jets jersey again, the only thing keeping the Ducks from signing Lindholm (their best defenceman) and slotting him back into a struggling lineup is asking price.
The two sides, according to previous reports from Friedman, have been within $700,000 of each other on a new deal, which doesn’t seem like a big difference to make up. But will Lindholm come down from his price any further than he already has? Nick Kypreos says the problem in this case, and one that is causing issues around the league, is a contract the Florida Panthers signed with one of their young RFA defencemen.
“I spoke to one GM today, he told me the sore point with defence contracts is Aaron Ekblad and why they paid such a steep price to re-sign him when they even had alleviation through state tax. They say it screwed up a lot of contracts moving forward. It set the bar way too high for some of these guys, including Lindholm.”
With Ekblad in the final season of his entry-level contract, the Panthers have already signed him to an eight-year extension with a cap hit of $7.5 million.
