Top 2024 NHL Draft center Cayden Lindstrom is a natural-born athlete

Steven Ellis
Steven Ellis
Cayden Lindstrom (Steve Dunsmoor/WHL)
Credit: Cayden Lindstrom (Steve Dunsmoor/WHL)

BUFFALO, N.Y. – There might not be a player who needed to have a bigger NHL Draft Combine week than Cayden Lindstrom.

The big, 6-foot-4 center missed most of the second half of the season with a back injury, and didn’t look like himself once he returned for the playoffs. For a potential top-five prospect, missing so much of the season could have been detrimental to his draft stock, as it was for a few other players projected to go early in 2024.

But Lindstrom was all smiles when he arrived at the LECOM Harborcenter earlier this week. Lindstrom’s management sent memos to teams around the league saying that Lindstrom’s back injury wouldn’t be an issue. He’s healthy, happy, and ready to show teams why many believe he’s a serious threat to become a top-line player in the NHL in the coming years.

“I’m feeling great, I’m working out 5-6 times a week, skating four times a week,” Lindstrom said during a media availability on Friday. “Everything’s going well, healing up pretty quickly.”

That’s music to the ears of the teams picking in the No. 4-10 range, with Lindstrom expected to go quite early on June 28 in the Sphere in Vegas.

Lindstrom has come a long way since getting drafted 54th overall by the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2021. He made his debut the following season before becoming a full-time WHLer in 2022-23. he had 19 goals and 42 points in 61 games as a rookie – solid, but not top-five worthy by any means.

But a hot start in 2023-24 shot him up the rankings, and by mid-October, most considered him a legitimate threat for the top 10. That never really wavered throughout the year, scoring 27 goals and 46 points in just 32 games as the Tigers looked to go the distance.

But a back injury just before Christmas kept him out of action until the end of March, with Lindstrom skating in four games against Red Deer in the playoffs. Lindstrom had just a goal and an assist, but showed he still had the fire inside of him to be as competitive as possible even when the offense wasn’t there anymore.

Lindstrom is a fascinating prospect because you don’t get many high-end power forwards with his explosive skating. Growing up, he was a multi-sport athlete, with baseball being his second love. But he also has done track and field throughout his life, and that’s evident in the raw power he possesses in his acceleration. allowing him to win so many foot races.

Lindstrom said he was always a bigger, taller kid growing up. But at 14, he started to focus on putting on more muscle. By the time he made to the WHL, he was quick and could already overwhelm older, more experienced competition from the get-go.

“You watch the way he moves, and hits and commands the puck and that’s the type of modern-day forward teams crave,” a scout said. “The guy that makes him so difficult to play against while having the skill and the hockey IQ to drive the play.”

Lindstrom isn’t the biggest player, but his combination of speed, size and skill makes him so fascinating. Scouts have drawn comparisons to Roope Hintz, and to a different extent, Eric Lindros and Lindstrom himself likes to watch Hintz and Nathan MacKinnon.

“They’re just both power, skilled forwards,” Lindstrom said. “I try to figure out things from their game, speed and power wise, how they create space for themselves in the corners and the neutral zone. Building up speed and stuff like that.”

Lindstrom sees himself as a center and wants to develop his game into a two-way style. Some scouts think he’s better suited as a winger in the NHL until he rounds himself out a bit more, but his pure strength in the faceoff dot is a nice touch.

And with a kid his size, he’s so hard to miss out there. He plays with a mean streak, but doesn’t go out there taking dumb penalties. Lindstrom will get you off your game and then immediately go the other way and make a play that leads to a goal. That’s his thing.

When Lindstrom is taken, he’ll be just the second player ever selected out of the remote village of Chetwynd, British Columbia. A 2016 census listed the area with a population of 2,503, with Lindstrom saying he had to spend significant time traveling to games growing up. Dody Wood played 106 games with the San Jose Sharks from 1992-98 after getting taken 45th overall in 1991, while former Vegas Golden Knights alternate captain Deryk Engelland played some of his minor hockey there, too.

So Lindstrom has a chance to make a huge splash – figurately and literally – later this month at The Sphere. Scouts are fascinated by everything he brings to the table, and there’s no shortage of teams interested in his services. Any time you’re dealing with a kid with a back injury, there’s risk involved. But if you’re willing to look past that, and focus on what the player has shown, it could pay off in a massive way.

Lindstrom is worth betting on.

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