Gustav Lindstrom is a completely unexciting hockey player who currently toils for the Laval Rocket in the AHL. The 26-year-old defenceman has 174 NHL games under his belt in addition to 75 AHL games, 40 games in the SHL (the Swedish Elite League) and 107 games in Hockey Allsvenskan (Swedish 2nd tier pro). He began last season with the Canadiens before being claimed on waivers by the Anaheim Ducks in January. In the off-season, he re-signed a two-way contract with the Canadiens that pays $775,000 at the NHL level and guarantees him a minimum of $300,000 wherever he plays.
At the moment, it is unlikely that he is on anyone’s radar but you can check his career stats on Elite Prospects.
When the former second round pick was acquired from Detroit in 2023, Kent Hughes believed that he had only reached 75% of his potential and given that the Canadiens re-signed him as a free agent in October 2024, the Montreal GM may believe there is still a chance. slim as it may be, for him to have a role in the NHL. A closer look at Lindstrom may give us a better idea.
First of all he is a RD with decent size at 6-2 187 and both those factors work in his favour. The fact that he also has over 400 pro games of pro experience is another positive. And at 26 years old, he is familiar with the ups and downs of pro hockey.
Last season the Swedish defenceman play 32 games with the Anaheim Ducks, a team that had a negative goal differential of 90 goals. The much maligned plus/minus stat reveals that Lindstrom finished the season at a +12. Whether you like that stat or not, the difference between the team goal differential and Lindstrom’s plus/minus really jumps off the page. It merits a closer look.
If we stick with his season with the Ducks, because it is the most recent sample of any notable size, we can glean a bit more information about Lindstrom’s play. The stats here are gleaned from MoneyPuck and from NHL.com. Offensively, Lindstrom is a black hole so we’ll skip by that and focus on a few defensive stats and where he ranked on the team among defencemen who played at least 20 games.
- Blocked shots 4.85 per 60 – 4th
- Hits 6.55 per 60 – 3rd
- Giveaways 0.84 per 60 – 1st (lowest number among Anaheim defencemen)
- On ice expected goals against 2.76 per 60 – 3rd
- On ice high danger shot attempts against 2.63 per 60 – 2nd
- On ice goal differential +4 – 1st (the only d-man on the team in positive territory)
Is Gustav Lindstrom an NHL quality defenceman? Perhaps not but the numbers he put up in Anaheim last year makes me wonder why the Ducks didn’t re-sign him. Not every defenceman on an NHL roster needs to be an offensive juggernaut who creates excitement at both ends of the ice. Stable, boring defenceman are also needed. We’ve seen it time and again with this year’s edition of the Canadiens.
With a roster of high profile defensive prospects in the system, it is highly unlikely that Lindstrom will get the call to Montreal but he is the type of defenceman the team sorely needs – someone who plays the right side and who focuses of defence first. If Lindstrom is perceived to unable to fill that role because of shortcomings in his game, it would behoove the Canadiens to find someone who plays a similar style but with a little more talent.
