Still talking out of your ass? jeez.
Of course it's possible that he asked for a trade. But let's look at this realistically:
Why ffs should Lindholm keep this request private?
The season has already started. He's losing money with every game he's without a contract.
If I were him, I would look that I get out of there asap if no contract is in sight. And how can you do this the most efficient way?
You publicly ask for a trade. Suddenly, everybody knows about your intent to leave. Suddenly a huge wave of trade offers is overwhelming Murray. Suddenly, Murray has lost a ****ton of his leverage.
So I ask you, Mr. Knows-Whats-Up: Why on earth should Lindholm remain silent about this?
Look, what happened with the Trouba situation sucks for you guys. But that's no reason to project your fears and despair onto the Lindholm situation.
Believe me, the Ducks fan base is already stressed out enough.
I think you're cutting a few corners here. Look at it from another perspective.
Anaheim doesn't have cap space to take back anyone without using the LTIR benefit. It's very hard for them to get a good return in a trade for any player on the team, and then they're supposed to trade the player who carries a cap hit of zero dollars, while having more value than almost everyone else? Why the hell would Lindholm put Murray in a worse spot? It's not like the player should backstab the manager to get out. It requires co-operation.
As a player, if you truly want out, you are (=should be) wise enough to think twice before doing anything stupid. A stupid act would be going public, and massively reducing Murray's leverage: everyone knows that your player wants out, and you're strapped in terms of what you can get back for him. If you do that, you're putting the man who's meant to get you out of Anaheim under unnecessary pressure, and reducing the assets that he's getting for you,
which means that you're reducing the chances that the GM will trade you. However, if you keep it behind closed doors, your GM has more time and options when it comes to either trading you, or making other moves to help his case, and most importantly, your case as well. That's the reason why you don't want to go public immediately. Just look how much Drouin got from his attempt to leave Tampa behind.
Now, if December is around the corner and Lindholm is still unsigned, then it's probably wiser to try speeding things up a bit. That's what Trouba and Overhardt did; they just did it before the season started, to avoid losing paychecks (what a f**king success that was). Is it going to go that far? Who knows.
