Bruins’ Elias Lindholm leaves game against Sabres with lower-body injury

The Boston Bruins lost their top-line center Thursday, as Elias Lindholm exited the team’s 4-3 overtime victory against the Buffalo Sabres with a lower-body injury.

The injury occured when Lindholm collided with Buffalo’s Jordan Greenway in the neutral zone.

Should Lindholm miss a significant amount of time, it will be a major loss for the Bruins. The Swedish national is a fixture within Boston’s top-six forward group, centering a line that features superstar David Pastrnak. Lindholm sits fourth on the team in scoring, with nine points in 12 games. If he is forced to miss more games, Boston will have to account for his absence by potentially moving Fraser Minten up the lineup, or perhaps moving a player like Casey Mittelstadt, who has experience at center, into the middle.

The Bruins made a sizable investment in Lindholm by signing him to a seven-year, $54.25 million deal in free agency ahead of the 2024-25 season. In his first year as a Bruin, Lindholm played all 82 regular-season games and put up 17 goals and 30 assists for 47 points.

Lindholm was drafted fifth overall in 2013 by the Carolina Hurricanes, where he spent the first five years of his NHL career. He never completely lived up to his draft stock in Carolina, failing to break 50 points in a season as a Hurricane. Ahead of the 2018-19 season, Lindholm was traded to the Calgary Flames in a multi-player deal that also involved Noah Hanifin, Dougie Hamilton, Michael Ferland, and Adam Fox.

It was in Calgary where Lindholm found his stride. He played five and a half seasons as a Flame, including a career-best 2021-22 campaign in which he scored 82 points in 82 games. Partway through the 2023-24 season, he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks, where he would finish out that season before signing with the Bruins.

The Bruins finish up a three-game homestand against the Hurricanes on Saturday, and then hit the road to play the New York Islanders on Tuesday.