Lindstrom's draft position unclear after report of serious injury during season

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Cooper Godin
June 17, 2024 (9:15)

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One of the top prospects for this month's NHL Entry Draft, Cayden Lindstrom, reportedly suffered an injury this past season that was more serious than initially thought.

On a podcast recently, Corey Pronman of The Athletic shared that Cayden Lindstrom had suffered a herniated disc back in January, which required surgery and kept him out of Medicine Hat's lineup for a number of weeks.

A herniated disc is a pretty significant injury and while Lindstrom was able to return to the Medicine Hat Tigers later in the season and appeared in four playoff games for them, it's unclear if this could be a lingering issue throughout his career. But it's safe to say that all NHL teams that are considering selecting Lindstrom later this month have done their due diligence and we'll have to wait and see where he gets up going.

Scott Powers of The Athletic reported last week that the Chicago Blackhawks are down to two names that they're considering with the second overall pick - Ivan Demidov and Artyom Levshunov, which now makes even more sense considering the news regarding Lindstrom. However, it was pretty unlikely that the Blackhawks would have taken Lindstrom second overall, but he may have been among the names in the mix for Kyle Davidson.

"With the news of Cayden Lindstrom suffering a herniated disc it makes sense as to why the #Blackhawks are down to Ivan Demidov and Artyom Levshunov"

As for another team that's set to selected high in the first round - the Montreal Canadiens, it appears that Lindstrom is still an option. According to Marco D'Amico of Montreal Hockey Now, teams have been in the loop for a while now regarding Lindstrom's injury, but it could complicate things a bit.

D'Amico added that if his back is good, then he could be selected fourth by Columbus or fifth by Montreal. If not, the Canadiens could turn their attention to either Tij Iginla or Beckett Sennecke.

"Lindstrom's injury is not a revelation to NHL teams who have been in the know for a bit.

All we're saying is that it complicates the evaluation.

If his back checks out, I wouldn't be surprised if he went 4th or 5th overall.

But if it doesn't, MTL may look to Sennecke/Iginla." D'Amico said.

The first round of the NHL's 2024 Entry Draft is set for Friday, June 28th and Cayden Lindstrom likely won't have to wait too long to have his name called, despite his injury issues this past season.