Lindstrom is gonna be interesting to me. It wouldn't surprise me if he gets picked top 3 and rushed to the NHL and busts.
I have little interest in him in the top 5. I would not want to pick a guy that high where his worst attribute is his hockey sense.
If Lindstrom isn't rushed, then I think he might develop well.
Hockeywiz777scouting denotes the concern about Hockey Sense and IQ, but still projects him to be like Pierre-Luc Dubois - power forward, two-way center that goes to the front of the net. Probably a middle-6 center.
Then we get to
McKeen's Hockey scouting report on Lindstrom:
Remarkably, Lindstrom wasn't selected in his WHL bantam draft until the 3rd round, 54th overall. He is a late bloomer whose stock is skyrocketing, and that makes him one of the biggest wildcards of the 2024 draft. On one hand, he's not as polished as other top prospects are, showcasing some hiccups with his awareness and decision-making. On the other hand, however, he looks like a prospect who is still far from being done developing. Just how much more is his game going to grow in the coming years?
Most of the scouting are published in Nov 2023. That is only two months of play. What I want to know from these scouts is did they see improvement from last year's scouting report to the past two months. Remember the whole McTavish scouting fiasco where most of the scouting media were using his D-1 season than looking at his D+0 season, though it was a small sample. And as talented as Mac was, he was returned to juniors after his 9-game NHL stint. We should view Lindstrom as a late bloomer and still needs developing. That's why there isn't a consensus of where Lindstrom should be in the top-10 aside that he's in the top-10 today.
- THN's Future Watch 2023 edition, projected 2024 top-10
- 10. RW Humphries
Only five to those projected last year are still in the top-10 of most mock drafts.
Should the Ducks draft Lindstrom, it isn't for him to play center, which does require a lot of hockey sense. We have three top-6 centers already in Mac, Carlsson, and Zegras. Lindstrom playing LW as a high-end skating PF with soft hands who can score is enticing.