Or y'know, he's more similar to Byfield and Kane than he is to Benn. Seem to be ignoring the comparisons to Carter and Anderson as well.
He's fast, shoot first, plays north-south, and plays a power game.
So is Evander Kane. Byfield is pass-first but the rest are true (Aside from the power game, but he does have the same size profile).
Jamie Benn plays a power game but he excels in the cycle, isn't fast, and is pretty even between shooting/passing first.
But nah, I'm sure everyone making those comparisons are just racist.
He doesn’t play North-South. How much have you watched him? He often likes to drive to the net in the offensive zone, but aside from that, he’s not what I’d call a North-South player.
A good way to describe his style is to picture Slafkovsky as a center. Seriously. They are quite similar. He’s got shades of Jagr stylistically as well, just like Slaf does. To me, he looks similar to Todd Bertuzzi in the way that he drives to the net too.
And before anyone gets bent out of shape about the Jagr and Bertuzzi comparisons, I just mean stylistically, not that I expect him to be as good as them.
Back to the Slafkovsky comparison, since everyone here is familiar with him and it will give a good reference point.
Like Slaf, he’s big, about 6’4, 220 lbs. I think his shot is better than Slafkovsky’s. He’s also faster and more agile, and a more powerful skater. He’s more physical than Slaf and more aggressive defensively man to man. Board battles and hands are about the same.
His puck skills and puck protection are his standout attribute, imo. Due to this, he has excels at zone entries and weaving through traffic and navigating the dirty areas effectively. His puck protection skills,
along with his frame are what allows him to drive to the net so effectively. He’s really good at using his body and long reach to shield and protect the puck while bulling to the net. Really strong on his skates too. Really high compete like Slaf. Works hard.
I think Slaf is a better playmaker, passer, and his decision making/tendencies in the offensive zone are better and more varied than Lindstrom.
Lindstrom works hard defensively and his positioning and compete there is good, in addition to the aggressiveness I already mentioned. He also excels at faceoffs, winning over a 60% rate this season.
So the knocks on him are his overall offensive IQ might be somewhat questionable, relative to his other attributes, and playmaking isn’t his strong suit, although he did show flashes where it looks like he could develop into a much better playmaker than we’ve seen. I think he has more potential there than people realize. I wouldn’t even consider his offensive IQ a weakness, more like average as of now. A lot of it could be to usage/coaching too, as he definitely had a clearly defined role on the team when he was playing. How much that has to do with it, idk.
Needless to say, he’s a really good prospect.