HF Habs: 2024 NHL Draft Thread

[Hannibal]

If Anaheim is really on Sennecke or Yakemchuk, we must swap pick with them and secure Lindstrom. Perfect for both teams

 

[Michoulicious]

Lots of talk about Lindstrom's back but nobody seems concerned about Demidov's knee that ended his season and that he traveled to Miami to have evaluated last week.

Demidov did not need surgery, which means in all likelihood it was a sprain, not a ruptured ligament or a big meniscal injury. This is good.

Even when hockey players get a knee ligament/meniscal surgery (like Dach, Galchenyuk or Jiricek, for example) they more often than not can still have good careers after a long rehab (6+ months)... Tougher for goalies, though.

Herniated discs unfortunately often lead to reoccurring pain episodes and limitations and many careers ended because of them.

Go safe and pick Iginla if it’s worrisome

At #5, there will be many good young players available.

 

[Jabba11]

At this rate, let me say that I've heard rumors of Stian Solberg at 3 to Anaheim.

Why not?

 

[dcyhabs]

Wait hold on what ???

An expert in the field said that in an article. He would tell people to do stretching and physio because he couldn’t see anything structurally wrong. Patients would bitch and say they would see another doctor to get an operation. He would throw up his hands and do the typical operation, really just randomly mess with stuff. Some patients would get better, some would stay the same, some would get worse.

The article came out several years ago. I hope it is better now. In any case, if it’s an option do the stretching and physio.

At this rate, let me say that I've heard rumors of Stian Solberg at 3 to Anaheim.

Why not?

Who cares about hockey, he aced the combine.

 

[Balthazar]

Lots of talk about Lindstrom's back but nobody seems concerned about Demidov's knee that ended his season and that he traveled to Miami to have evaluated last week.

So Lindstrom has a bad back, Demidov has a bad knee and Sennecke skates like Bambi and is Kotkaniemi 2.0

Defenseman it is then.

 

[JeffreyLFC]

At this rate, let me say that I've heard rumors of Stian Solberg at 3 to Anaheim.

Why not?

Solberg profile kind of reminds me Seider.

 

[Mrb1p]

I am an ER physician and let me tell you that an lumbar herniated disc, with or without surgery, can cause problems to even do basic life stuff like walking and lying down.

A hockey player that is already sidelined at 18 and that misses almost half a season because of it is a very, very bad sign.

Possible career ending kind of problem for a hockey player. I'd not gamble it at #5, especially in a loaded draft with a lot of nice options.

Am also a doctor:
Sometimes scans pick up herniated disks that people didn't even know they had. There's a whole spectrum of severity from benign to catastrophic.

Don't worry, I've had posters here literally try to educate me on what I do for a living. It's the nature of the internet, I get a good chuckle out of it and try not to flash my credentials as it's not worth it. That said, so many MDs on these boards. I know of at least 5 on HF. Maybe that's the issue with HFhabs

Not me realizing the reason I don't have a family doctor is because they are all arguing with me about hockey on HFboards... I was the problem all along.

 

[NotProkofievian]

Hmmm herniated disc is no bueno.

 

[Shred]

I too am a doctor.
An armchair draft doctor.
Prognosis?
Drink lots of water and Draft Lindstrom

Are you specialized in urology? We could use your expert opinion on Dickinson.

 

[Archijerej]

It's lupus.

 

[HuGort]

Here is a more recent paper. Return-to-Play Outcomes of Athletes After Operative and Nonoperative Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation
O'Connor SB, Holmberg KJ, Hammarstedt JE, Acosta JR, Monahan K, Sauber RD, Altman DT. Return-to-Play Outcomes of Athletes After Operative and Nonoperative Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation. Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med. 2023 May;16(5):192-200. doi: 10.1007/s12178-023-09829-z. Epub 2023 Mar 31. PMID: 36997833; PMCID: PMC10188705.

The short version: it matters which procedure injured players undergo. It's possible, even likely, that recent surgeries result in better outcomes. Some highlights:

Hockey​

Schroeder et al. ... However, it was noted that players who underwent a lumbar fusion successfully returned to play 100% (8 of 8) of the time for an average of 203 games over a 4-year period, which may represent and entirely different cohort than what we are trying to understand in the scope of this study. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the number of games played per season before and after a lumbar fusion [29]. Although a small sample size in the lumbar fusion group makes it difficult to draw conclusions, these findings suggest that a single-level lumbar fusion does not define a career-ending surgery for elite hockey players as previously suggested [30].

... Yamaya et al. examined the outcomes of transforaminal percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy (PELD) in high school athletes suffering from LDH and found even higher RTP rates of 94.4% an average of 7 weeks after surgery [32]. While this procedure did allow for high RTP rates and short recovery times, there are some barriers in selecting this intervention. Surgeons must be trained to perform transforaminal PELD without causing complications such as exiting nerve root injury. Additionally, long-term prognosis and possibility of symptom recurrence are not yet as thoroughly understood as more traditional methods like LD.

Hockey​

Schroeder et al. ...This finding is different from what was previously seen in NFL and NBA players who generally have preserved athletic performance after treatment for LDH. However, of the 8 players who underwent lumbar fusion for treatment of their LDH, these findings were not the case. Players treated with lumbar fusion had no significant difference in performance score after treatment, and instead had a significant increase in points per game postoperatively [29]. Although the sample size was small, these findings demonstrate potential for players at this elite level to successfully continue their preinjury level of sport.

Is this disc injury same one he had last December. If so, sounds like lingering long time.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

NHL teams must have gotten the medical report of Lindstrom on the 1st day of the combine or before, no? Yet, only positive reports came out about Lindstrom from the combine and his stock seems to have even risen. That must mean teams are not that concerned with his disk injury?

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

No way Lindstrom gets past the Jackets if he’s healthy as they have Dr Recchi on their staff and if they pass on him then we should too

 

[themilosh]

Yeah but you'd much rather draft a player who doesn't have one.
We already know after Celebrini anything can happen and the scouts are all over the place.
How much better will Lindstrom have to be perceived to take a chance on him over one of the other players who is in that same tier?

Isn't demidov in rehab now for a knee? Idk about you, but weak knees sink ships, or so the saying goes.

 

[G0bias]

Hoping the severity of it isn't so bad that Columbus pivots to Demidov instead.

Damn what a roller-coaster this is leading up to the draft

 

[Habs Icing]

I loved the idea of Lindstrom and Slafkovsky pissing on the leafs, but that's a no for me dawg.

It's Demidov or give me death by a dull blade instead.

You must be the 4th or 5th poster who uttered this ultimatum. Jeeze, man, I know it has been 31 years without a cup but it's only a game.

 

[Habs Icing]

If Anaheim is really on Sennecke or Yakemchuk, we must swap pick with them and secure Lindstrom. Perfect for both teams

Did you just merrily skip over the last 6-7 pages of this thread where Lindstrom's herniated disc was discussed?

 

[Hannibal]

Did you just merrily skip over the last 6-7 pages of this thread where Lindstrom's herniated disc was discussed?

Pronman said that even with that, all the reports he got from teams at the combine were positive about his injury. So his injury is porbably not as dark as people here make it seems. And Demidov has two damaged knees, so…

 

[Habs Icing]

Pronman said that even with that, all the reports he got from teams at the combine were positive about his injury. So his injury is porbably not as dark as people here make it seems. And Demidov has two damaged knees, so…

So Iginla, Sennecke, Catton and maybe even Parekh jump the queue.

 

[Skip Bayless]

You must be the 4th or 5th poster who uttered this ultimatum. Jeeze, man, I know it has been 31 years without a cup but it's only a game.

Don't tell me what to do

 

[MarkovsKnee]

I never said I was. But you can recover from a herniated disc and return to 100% . . . no matter what you do. That's the part some are overlooking.

You can definitely recover from it. My mother did, but then she didn't play hockey for a living. Just needed to be able to walk, sit & lay down without pain.

It took Gabriel Vilardi a long, long time to recover from his back issues as a junior. I'm not big on taking junior players with serious injuries as it almost always follows them to NHL, where they often become injury prone.

Players lose playing time, and a lot of training time from these major injuries.

 

[morhilane]

Lots of talk about Lindstrom's back but nobody seems concerned about Demidov's knee that ended his season and that he traveled to Miami to have evaluated last week.

I'm not a super fan of that either personally. But knee injuries are common and most players come back fine, especially the young ones.

And people saying "docs are saying it's ok, no surgery needed" in the case of Lindstrom, that's also what the Buffalo management and doctors were arguing to Eichel he wanted to be operated.

 

[SwiftyHab]

Pronman said that even with that, all the reports he got from teams at the combine were positive about his injury. So his injury is porbably not as dark as people here make it seems. And Demidov has two damaged knees, so…

There’s a lot of misdirection with teams preferences to draft picks right now. They all might be saying they’re great with the medical reports but who knows what they’re hearing from their doctors and what they actually will reveal. Take everything now with a huge grain of salt

 

[Habs Icing]

Don't tell me what to do

I didn't tell you what to do. I simply pointed out it was just a game

 

[WeThreeKings]

Why the sudden interest in Lindstrom’s back injury? Has things changed or taken a turn for the worse? From the little research I’ve done, he tested fine at the combine and teams should have done their due diligence on him.

Just cause Pronman said what it was, and even though he also said it wasn't an issue with doctors and his testing he did do stressed the back and he performed well. So naturally people here are latching on to the sensationalist worst case scenario rather than the good news.