Bruins, Elias Lindholm are stuck in an unfortunate waiting game

Elias Lindholm harped on the positives last week when asked about his health entering his third year with the Bruins.

“It’s good. It’s good,” Lindholm said last week at the Boston Bruins Foundation Golf Tournament in Plymouth. “It’s been obviously a couple of months off now, and feels good.”

Lindholm’s comments are hardly a surprise.

A few months away from the rink and the day-to-day punishment hockey players subject themselves to often does wonders before those same skaters accept that same grueling workload once again. ​

But, for Lindholm and the Bruins, there is still plenty unsettled entering the 2026-27 season — be it the veteran forward’s production, his role on a reworked forward corps, and questions around whether or not the 31-year-old center’s lingering back issues are truly in the past.

“Yeah, hopefully,” Lindholm said when asked if he feels those back woes are now in the rearview mirror. “I think it’s kind of hard to know right now, but, you know, it’s been a good summer. I feel my body feels ready to go. So for now, it’s good.”

At this stage of his tenure with the Bruins, the veteran forward isn’t expected to hold court as Boston’s top-line center. ​

Lindholm’s production has waned since he signed a seven-year, $54.25 million contract in July 2024, averaging just 47.5 points per season over each of his first two years with Boston.

Two things have seemingly worked in Boston’s favor amid the lessening returns put forth by Lindholm.

One has been the surging cap ceiling, making his $7.75 million annual cap hit — while still far from ideal — less burdensome over time.

The emergence of other viable centers on the roster like Pavel Zacha and Fraser Minten — and potentially even James Hagens or Dean Letourneau down the road — also takes some of the pressure off Lindholm.

Still, with Lindholm holding no-movement protection and with his health remaining a major question mark, there likely won’t be many takers for him via trade moving forward.

As such, the Bruins are now focused on trying to extract as much value as they can out of Lindholm somewhere on Marco Sturm’s depth chart.

As underwhelming as his time in Boston has been thus far, the case can be made that Lindholm could still be useful to the Bruins in a middle-six role — generating Grade-A looks while operating at the “bumper” position on the power play and putting up 40-50 points.

But, that scenario would only be possible if Lindholm avoids the injury bug for the third year in a row — not a guarantee for the Swedish center, given the uncertainty regarding a back issue that often doesn’t age well over time, especially for players in their 30s.

His initial back injury, sustained in August 2024, forced Lindholm to miss most of training camp and play catch-up, posting just 47 points over 82 games in 2024-25.

Those same back issues resurfaced in 2025-26, stunting an encouraging start to the year, when Lindholm seemed to be settling into a groove as a top-six regular and power-play weapon on a revitalized man advantage.

After tweaking his back in the middle of the season — an injury further exacerbated by a long bus ride back to Boston from New York amid inclement weather — Lindholm took a pain-killing injection ahead of representing Sweden during the 2026 Winter Olympics.

While he tallied 37 points in his first 44 games of the 2025-26 campaign, Lindholm’s play cratered after the Winter Games in Italy, as he scored just six goals and 11 points in 25 games.

Speaking in June, Bruins GM Don Sweeney acknowledged that a limited Lindholm might have to be the new expectation for the former top free-agent pickup.

​“I think Elias is a valuable player. He can play with different players,” Sweeney said. “He can play in a shutdown role. He’s done a pretty good job in the power play when we used it there. Just hasn’t produced at the level he used to. Is that team-related or adjustment-related, two different coaches? There’s all kinds of variables in that sense. ​

“Health is one of them. That’s not his fault. I know he’s working hard. He’s looking at some alternative stuff to get over the hump and come back like he wants to produce to the level we would all like to see. But it just might be this is what his new level is, and you have to accept that. But it’s not for lack of trying.”

The Bruins might be at peace with Lindholm being more of a second or third-line regular than a franchise fixture at this point. But, even that won’t be a viable option if Lindholm continues to be plagued by these back woes.

Lindholm acknowledged last week that he augmented his offseason routine, focusing more on his rehab, limiting heavy weights, and taking a bit longer before ramping up his on-ice work.

“I think you take two or three weeks off and just reset your body and try to hang out with the family, and then you start wanting to get back to the gym and get going again,” Lindholm acknowledged.  “And no, for me, it’s been my main focus on rehab and making sure my body is in a good place.

“And I think that’s been kind of the main thing the whole summer. I think once you have a little, you know, feel something, you take a step back and make sure you feel good for the next day.”​

It’s a tricky — and unenviable — tightrope for both the Bruins and Lindholm to navigate going into the 2026-27 campaign.

For as much as the Bruins might be willing to accept a lesser role from Lindholm moving forward, that hope is also rooted in the veteran staying on the ice.

It’s a hope that could be dashed in short order if Lindholm’s back once again flares up over the expected bumps and bruises that await amid an 84-game gauntlet.

 

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.