Ducks’ Hampus Lindholm becomes top blue-line trade target

Pat Verbeek has been on the job for barely a month as the Anaheim Ducks’ general manager, but a tone has quietly been set as he enters his first trade deadline at the helm.

The message to his three pending UFAs: We’re not giving out term.

It appears that term, not AAV, has been the sticking point in the early stage of negotiations with Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson and Rickard Rakell.

Term restraint will limit the total dollars in play, which is a major part of the calculus for players and agents when it comes to determining whether they will test the market in the summer or re-sign.

For Verbeek, perhaps it’s a lesson learned – or a philosophy mirrored – from his time spent with Steve Yzerman in Tampa Bay and Detroit. There, Yzerman only gave max-term deals to the elite of the elite in Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov. Ryan McDonagh got a seven-year deal.

In Detroit, the longest deal Yzerman has handed out is a four-year pact to Anthony Mantha, who was traded six months later.

Term, not dollars, is what has gotten a lot of teams into salary cap trouble. For many, handing out term has simply been a mechanism to reduce the AAV to a palatable number for their salary cap, not necessarily an endorsement to a player’s longevity and future impact in the lineup.

Verbeek said publicly a couple weeks back that if his free agents weren’t signed by the March 21 deadline, that he would have no choice but to maximize return in a trade. His Ducks aren’t in a position to chase a playoff spot and risk them walking in free agency for nothing.

With 13 days left, there is plenty of time for extensions to materialize, but Verbeek has begun to gauge the trade market.

As a result, Hampus Lindholm has joined the Trade Targets board and rocketed to the top as the premier rental defenseman available:

Trade Targets

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