Lundestrom should be sent back to Sweden. He doesn't look out of place in the NHL but he's not going to move the needle for the Ducks this season. He's spent his entire career within the Lulea organization and clearly they've developed him well. Loaning him to Lulea will allow him to play top-6 minutes for one of the better SHL teams and give him the opportunity to lead Sweden's WJC team.
He'd almost assuredly be pushed out of the Anaheim lineup once all of Rowney, Kase, Silfverberg, Eaves, and Comtois become available again; no sense in delaying the inevitable, burning a year on his ELC, and exposing him to the tumult that is this tire-fire of a team.
Edit: Stephen's article following the 5-2 loss to Dallas is full of Lundestrom quotes
Ryan Getzlaf calls Ducks play 'f***ing embarrassing' in...
Carlyle, on Lundestrom - “To me, he has shown that he has the ability to skate with the NHL-level people. He’s a strong skater. He plays. He’s not intimidated by what’s going on out there. He controls the puck in certain situations where you’d expect him to protect the puck. And he’s shown an ability to play all three forward positions. We’ve tried to integrate him on the penalty killing. He seems to have grasped that. We’ve played him at left wing, we’ve played him at right wing and he’s a (center). To me, there’s a lot of things in it. At some point, we’re going to have to find a position for him. Because we don’t think it’s justice to play a young player out of his position for an extended period of time. Find a position, find a line for him and put it together. Saying that, it’s not easy when you have numbers that we have that are fluctuating in and out of the lineup.”
Lundestrom - “You need to be a little bit more harder with the puck and do the right things out there. You don’t have much time and you can’t turn off and go back to the D-zone and do a little bit (of that) as in the SHL. It’s harder. It’s tougher and they score much faster, of course. I’ve felt I’m been more and more comfortable with each game I’m playing. And I felt I’ve also done pretty good out on the wing also. So that felt good. I just want to go and play my game and do my best out there. I’m just keeping looking forward. Of course, I know the rules and stuff like that. I can’t do anything about that. I just try to do my best out there.”
Again, I highly encourage everyone to subscribe to the Athletic. The quality of Stephens' coverage has improved significantly.
