BUFFALO, N.Y. — A lot of high-profile names get thrown about at the NHL Draft Scouting Combine as people play the comparison game to get their heads around what kind a player a prospect could one day become. It goes without saying, the overwhelming majority of comps cited are to elite-level hockey players. But when Miguel Marques describes six-foot-three Cayden Lindstrom — a guy Marques has known dating back to youth hockey in British Columbia — the comparison that first comes to mind creates a line between Marques, himself, and an all-time baseball legend. “He’s been big ever since he’s been little,” Marques says of Lindstrom, putting together a sentence Yogi Berra would be proud of. “I [always] knew he was going to be a good player. Now he’s going to do some incredible things in the NHL.”
That large frame is certainly a foundational element of Lindstrom’s appeal to NHL squads. But his body is also a talking point in terms of a back injury that — along with a couple other question marks — tempers some of the conversation about precisely how high the Medicine Hat Tigers centre will go on Friday at the NHL Draft. There’s a risk-reward element to every selection, but the kick-yourself potential for passing on Lindstrom may be as big as the 210-pound 18-year-old himself. And given he might just be scratching the surface of what’s to come when he returns to a loaded Medicine Hat squad in the Western Hockey League next fall, you have to imagine teams selecting in the immediate aftermath of the top-pick holding San Jose Sharks are having intense conversations and offering plenty of comps in their attempts to rate this rare bird.
When you dream on what kind of player Lindstrom — who most definitely has a mean streak — can be, it’s a power forward capable of leaving a path of destruction in his wake. There’s certainly precedent for that in his hockey past, and not just from an impressive — albeit injury-shortened — season in the WHL.
“We had this carpet floor,” Lindstrom says of the house he grew up in. “I had these little skates — I was probably three or four years old. [My grandpa] would tie the skates up in the house with the blades off. I remember I was just walking around with a little mini-stick in my hand. There are pictures of it. I would rip up the carpet and couches, my mom and my grandma would just get pissed and my grandpa was just laughing at me scratching up all the floors.”
Even when he’s not delighting in a classic family tale, as he did at the combine in Buffalo earlier this month, Lindstrom beams when talking about his kin. Lindstrom grew up in Chetwynd, B.C., supported by single mom, Trish, his grandparents and his three younger sisters. He understands and is grateful for the sacrifices they made for him — the 14-hour car rides for tournaments in Vancouver and the pinch of covering hockey expenses — but underlines the fact they were also all in it together. “They loved it just as much as I did,” he says.
Trish was a little apprehensive when Cayden started pushing to take next hockey steps that would transplant him far from home as a young teen. However, a lot of Facetime helped ease the transition when he did move to the Delta Hockey Academy just outside Vancouver at age 14. Marques — now a draft hopeful who represents the Lethbridge Hurricanes — was there, too, having also made the move from Northern B.C. “He is a pretty quiet kid, doing his own thing, but you can get some jokes out of him, too,” Marques says “He’s awesome.”
After two seasons with Delta, Lindstrom made the jump to the ‘Dub’ in Medicine Hat. His first year there came with predictable ups and downs. His second saw him shot out of a cannon in his all-important draft-eligible year. He netted four goals in three pre-season games, then bagged 27 in the first 32 contests of the campaign. “It’s almost [deceptive] how fast and how well he moves as a bigger guy,” says Berkly Catton, a rival centre with the Spokane Chiefs and potential top-10 pick himself.
The second half of Lindstrom’s year — with the exception the four playoff games he gutted out at less than 100 per cent — was wiped out by a minor hand injury and, more notably, the back injury teams asked about at the combine. Lindstrom’s agency happily made his medical reports available to all 32 outfits, but if the words “size” and “speed” always get teams excited, putting “big man” and “back issue” together has a way of making them twitch. “I definitely got a lot of questions about it, but I don’t think it was a major concern,” says Lindstrom, not long after participating in the combine’s pull-up and bench press tests. “I’m healing up well, I’m on the ice three to four times a week, I work out in the gym about five to six times a week. It wasn’t too much of a concern.”
There are a couple other caveats to consider when it comes to Lindstrom, who could be in play for the Montreal Canadiens at No. 5 and will almost certainly be off the board by the time the Ottawa Senators stroll up for the seventh pick. He was fantastic when he played last season, but missing half the year makes for a small sample size. “It was terrible, to be honest,” he says of life on the sidelines. “Just seeing your teammates play and you’re just sitting there, not being able to skate and go through battles with [them].”
As for his on-ice performance, there is one component of his game that’s repeatedly come under question. Lindstrom confirmed several teams at the combine prodded him on his abilities as a passer, which flicks at the idea his ultimate destiny as a pro could be as a winger rather than at the premium position of centre. For what it’s worth, Lindstrom anticipates no trouble quieting those conversations. “I think I’m a great playmaker, I think that’s a little [overlooked] with my game,” he says. “I’m really confident with the puck, I think I can make plays.”