I'm a Lindstrom fan but nowhere near CSB's obsession with him. He's mid-first caliber IMO. My biggest concern with his game is that he doesn't create anything in the middle. He's fine wearing down dudes along the wall and is a great stickhandler with shifty moves, but I was shocked to see how infrequent he uses his puck protection to get to the middle and draw attention away from the backdoor or weak side. Passing off the cycle was very basic and safe, and too many times he hands off and goes right to the net. This is a No. 2 or 3 OA? Hell no, I say. Anyway, when I saw his assist total and was shocked that a 1C/2C on a high-powered team rated 3rd overall by CSB had only 19 assists in 32 games, I did an audit of each one.
First off, his A/G total of 0.59 is very low for a notable WHL first-year eligible forward. I went back to 2014 and looked at all the big names -- Top-100 NHL scorers this season drafted out of the Dub and top-rated WHL'ers from 2019-2023 (2018 was a shit draft for the WHL the 2017 kids -- Glass,Patrick, Yamamoto, and Rasmussen -- well, you know). Lindstrom ranks near the bottom of the list:
[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]WHL Forward[/TD]
[TD]Draft[/TD]
[TD]A/G[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Connor Bedard[/TD]
[TD]2023[/TD]
[TD]1.26[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sam Reinhart[/TD]
[TD]2014[/TD]
[TD]1.15[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ryan Nugent-Hopkins[/TD]
[TD]2011[/TD]
[TD]1.09[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Leon Draisaitl[/TD]
[TD]2014[/TD]
[TD]1.05[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Zach Benson[/TD]
[TD]2023[/TD]
[TD]1.03[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mathew Barzal[/TD]
[TD]2015[/TD]
[TD]1.02[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dylan Guenther[/TD]
[TD]2021[/TD]
[TD]1.00[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Seth Jarvis[/TD]
[TD]2020[/TD]
[TD]0.97[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Matt Savoie[/TD]
[TD]2022[/TD]
[TD]0.85[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Connor Zary[/TD]
[TD]2020[/TD]
[TD]0.84[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Colby Dach[/TD]
[TD]2019[/TD]
[TD]0.77[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Peyton Krebs[/TD]
[TD]2019[/TD]
[TD]0.77[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Samuel Honzek[/TD]
[TD]2023[/TD]
[TD]0.77[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Brayden Yager[/TD]
[TD]2023[/TD]
[TD]0.75[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Brayden Point[/TD]
[TD]2014[/TD]
[TD]0.74[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Dylan Cozens[/TD]
[TD]2019[/TD]
[TD]0.74[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Jake Neighbours[/TD]
[TD]2020[/TD]
[TD]0.73[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Conor Geekie[/TD]
[TD]2022[/TD]
[TD]0.73[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Nate Danielson[/TD]
[TD]2023[/TD]
[TD]0.66[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ridly Greig[/TD]
[TD]2020[/TD]
[TD]0.61[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Cayden Lindstrom[/TD]
[TD]2024[/TD]
[TD]0.59[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Oliver Bjorkstrand[/TD]
[TD]2013[/TD]
[TD]0.49[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Brandon Hagel[/TD]
[TD]2016[/TD]
[TD]0.47[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mike Rasmussen[/TD]
[TD]2017[/TD]
[TD]0.46[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
As far as the nature of his assists, less than half of the 19 were actual setups, and 10 of the 19 were primary 5v5. I know he scored nearly a goal a game and his 1.44 P/G average looks amazing, but my concern is Basha had a lot to do with that. Between his injuries, the lack of setups, the rusty playoff, and a decent Hlinka, there's no way he's a top-10 pick to me.