Predicting where John Gibson, Elias Lindholm and Alexander Barabanov might get traded by February

2. Elias Lindholm

Elias Lindholm is a serviceable player in many aspects, whether it’s playing top-six minutes, scoring, playing sound defense, or winning faceoffs. Lindholm doesn’t appear to be as productive this season with 19 points in 30 contests after coming off of an 82-point season in 2021-22 and a 64-point outing last year, so he’s more likely playing a middle-six role if traded to a contender. 

A contender who could use help defensively and in winning faceoffs while providing a strong supplement in scoring would be the ideal fit for Lindholm. The surprising Philadelphia Flyers would be a prime landing spot for the center, as they currently rank 26th in the faceoff dot and could also use more help from a scoring standpoint, where they rank 16th in the league with 89 goals. 

Lindholm would immediately help a team that has seen little success over the past three seasons perhaps break back into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And a younger team like the Flyers wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice draft picks and even prospects if it meant trading for a solid player who had just turned 29. They would, however, need to sign the forward to an extension after the season if they wanted him to stick around Southeast Pennsylvania.