#48- Mats Lindgren- While many in this class have described Lindgren as ‘raw’ or someone who boasts ‘plenty of potential’ I somewhat agree and disagree. Lindgren does few things extremely well, and other parts of his game I did not care for too much. Lindgren holds the blue line extremely well, cuts into the slot better than most defenses can, and his tight-area game is absolutely bonkers. Lindgren has awesome puck control, but I’m not sure how much it lasts at the upper levels. Lindgren is a fine skater, but his skating backwards could really use some work. Defensively, Lindgren can be a stand still player, watching plays unfold in front of him, limiting his role in shutting anything down. The main areas of concern for Lindgren are play away from the puck, defensive IQ, effort at times, backwards skating and physicality. Areas that he excels in is puck control, frontal skating, positional creation with the puck, passing and stick handling.
Potential: Top 4 D
Potential rank: 4/10
Highly intelligent, two-way defenseman. Mats Lindgren – son of the former NHL’er of the same name – has progressed meaningfully over the course of the season. The most interesting thing about Lindgren is – while being one of the youngest players available in this draft class – he has really projectable structure to his game and it’s the technical ability that needs work. In more cases than not, it’s the other way around. We’ll see a high-level talent who can do anything he wants with the puck and/or skate circles around other junior players, but his game will lack a translatable component(s). Lindgren is toolbox and structure and scalability, but fairly modest on the actual skill level itself.
Mats is a really smart player and not only is he smart, but he’s really engaged and very competitive. Sometimes we’ll see smarter d-men who aren’t amazing puck handlers just kind of sit in the weeds and do their thing, but Lindgren plays the game on his toes in all three zones…he makes his presence felt on both sides of the puck.
There was a time this season when the Elite Prospects scouting staff thought well enough of Mats Lindgren to place him comfortably inside the first round on our debut ranking for the 2022 NHL Draft. His proficiency on the breakout coupled with strong boxcar stats as one of the youngest players in the draft class in a top-four role for a Kamloops Blazers team with Memorial Cup aspirations was enough to pique our interest and view him as a player with the potential to play second-pairing minutes in the NHL somewhere down the road.
The lack of exceptional tools barely registered as a concern for our staff at the time. Lindgren would make up for the lack of a separating gear as a skater with veteran details on the breakout, drawing in the first forechecker, handling past them with deception, and sending the puck up-ice with precision and pace. We still believe in that part of his game, but it became clear as the season wore on that the lack of projectable tools would become a far greater limiter than we initially gave credit. "Lindgren’s limited by his mechanics, not by his brain," Elite Prospects Dir. of North American Scouting Mitch Brown remarked in a December game report.
"He keeps that top hand tight to his hip through everything: shooting, handling, pass receptions. When combined with his lack of outside edge use, he gets stuck, quite literally. He’ll try to deke but end up in the exact same place he started, simply moving the puck from his backhand to forehand in a long motion without any ability to move into the space or even beat most players." Eventually, we had to ask ourselves: How exactly does one bet on a defensive prospect when the best part of their game at present carries a significantly fraught projection?
We couldn't answer that question, and his stock plummeted as the season wore on as a result. There's still some hope for Lindgren to develop into a bottom-of-the-lineup, puck-moving defenceman, but it will require significant work on his part. The lack of any real creativity or high-end skill limits his offensive projection, as do his tools in transition and as a rush defender.
SteaI!! feel they saved overlooking all them god D's at 41.
Everyone who is mad about the goalie pick, just pretend we took Lindgren in the 2nd and the goalie in the fourth.
DealEveryone who is mad about the goalie pick, just pretend we took Lindgren in the 2nd and the goalie in the fourth.